MASOOD REHMANiSLaMabaD

TIMe is short and thechoices are lim-ited. The five-m e m b e rS u p r e m e

Court bench on Tues-day framed a charge-sheet against theprime minister andleft the matter forthe larger benchto finally take adecision and,exercising judi-cial restraint,gave the gov-ernment achance to re-consider itsposition on theimplementationof the apexcourt’s decision onthe National Recon-ciliation Ordinance(NRO) by January 16.

What set the alarm bellsringing in the corridors ofpower was the five-mem-ber bench’s observationthat the prime minister hadviolated his oath and that he, prima facie, wasnot an honest man who met the constitutionalcondition for being elected as a member of par-liament. Announcing its order on the govern-ment’s failure to implement the NRO verdict,the five-judge special bench headed by JusticeAsif Saeed Khan Khosa held that the persistent,obstinate and contumacious resistance, failureand refusal of the prime minister to completelyobey and execute the directions issued in theNRO case reflected that “at least prima facie, hemay not be an honest person on account of hisnot being honest to the oath of his office andseemingly he may not be an ‘ameen’ due to hispersistent betrayal of the trust reposed in himas a person responsible for preserving, protect-ing and defending the constitution and also on

account of allowing his personal political in-terest to influence his official conduct and

decisions”. The court held thatthe federal government and

the National AccountabilityBureau (NAB) were not se-

rious in implementingthe NRO verdict at all

and were only inter-ested in delaying

and prolonging thematter on one pre-text or the

other.The courtpointed outthat it couldtake six op-tions againstthe willfuld i s o b e d i -ence of thegovernmentin imple-

menting someparts of the

NRO verdict andconsequent direc-

tions. In its first op-tion, the court held

that failure to implementthe NRO verdict was a

case of brazen and bla-tant failure or refusal of

the federal governmentand the buck stopped at the office of the chiefexecutive of the federation, the prime minis-ter. The court held that the prime ministerhad violated his oath by not executing andimplementing the NRO verdict. The courtsaid the prime minister in his oath had madean unambiguous commitment with God notonly to conduct himself completely in accordwith the commands and requirements of theconstitution, including those of Articles 2A,37(d), 189 and 190 thereof, also totally insync with the requirements and teachings ofthe Holy Quran, but he violated his oath bynot obeying the court orders.

ISLAMABADMian abrar

Now it’s between the parliament andthe judiciary. With the Supreme Courtleaving no space for the government tofurther dilly-dally on the implementa-tion of the National Reconciliation Or-dinance verdict and holding the primeminister responsible for obstructing ac-tion on its decisions, President Asif AliZardari on Tuesday rushed to Islam-abad for a meeting with his party’scoalition partners to seek their supportand it was decided that the matterwould now be taken to parliament torespond to the judiciary.

Faced with a tough situation in astandoff between the government andthe judiciary, the heads of ruling coali-tion on Tuesday decided to throw theball in parliament’s court after failing

to reach a consensus on a joint futureplan of action on implementation of theSupreme Court’s NRO verdict. “Nowthe government will not respond to thejudiciary as now the parliament will de-cide what to do,” a source told PakistanToday after the meetings of the parlia-mentary heads with the president andthe core committee of the PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP).

He said it was also decided that nostatement would be issued by the gov-ernment but the response by the par-liament would, however, be strong. Thesource said the prime minister wouldmake a speech in the National Assem-bly giving details of what the govern-ment had implemented with regard tothe SC’s decision on the NRO, besideshighlighting how the court hadridiculed government officials andfunctionaries by selectively taking up

the cases against the executive. Thesource said a resolution might also bepassed by the House in favour of theprime minister, reposing confidence inhim to send a strong message that theparliament stood by him.

He quoted the president as sayingthat the judiciary had become a partyand this was the reason that he was op-posed to the restoration of the judges.Though a private TV channel said thepresident had asked his coalition part-ners that he was ready to resign if theydesired or advised so, it was not con-firmed by the Presidency. An officialhandout issued from the Presidencystated that leaders of the allied partiesdecided to convene National Assem-bly’s session on January 12 (tomorrow).

NEWS DESK

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional(PML-F) chief and spiritual leader ofthe Hur community Pir Syed MardanShah II, more commonly known as PirSahib Pagara, passed away in Londonlate on Tuesday night, Geo News re-ported. He was 83.

The veteran politician was taken toLondon by a special air ambulance onJanuary 5 along with his physician andfamily members for treatment of in-fected lungs. His sons Pir SadruddinShah Rashdi and Pir Sibghatullah ShahRashdi, his wife, physician Dr Saulat,secretary Dr Karim Mehar and adviserto the Sindh Chief Minister ImtiazShaikh were also in London to overseehis treatment at a private hospital.

Hazrat Pir Syed Mardan Shah II was

the leader of the Sunni Muslim Sufiorder of Hurs in Sindh. His father,Hazrat Pir Syed Sibghatullah Shah, washanged on March 20, 1943 by the Britishcolonial government during his struggleagainst British rule. He will be buried inhis native town of Pir Jo Goth, Khairpurdistrict, Sindh, where he was born. PirSyed Mardan Shah II was given the title

of Pir Pagara in 1922 when he was only12. Pagara was fond of horse races andhe often spent his Sundays at theKarachi Race Course. He also took activepart in Pakistani politics since the 1960s.When Fatima Jinnah lost elections toAyub Khan, she declared the MuslimLeague “Functional” and made Pir Pa-garo the head. In politics, he was knownfor his predictions for governments andhis supporters believe his predictions tobe correct. He was first arrested in 1930for his struggle against British rule andQuaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnahrepresented him in court. The news ofhis death spread like wildfire throughoutSindh as his followers and party workersbegan to mourn his demise. His bodywill be flown to Karachi today (Wednes-day) as the Sindh CM announced athree-day mourning in the province.

Wednesday, 11 January, 2012 safar 16, 1433rs15.00 vol ii no 195 22 pages Karachi — edition

govt Cornered into isolation | page o4

Continued on page 04

pakistantoday.com.pk

6 options, 6 daysg SC says ‘prima facie, PM may not be an honest person onaccount of his not being honest to the oath of his office’

Pir Pagara passes away in London

Government opts to huddle behind parliamentg Prime minister to present govt’s case in NA on Thursday

Continued on page 04

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02wednesday, 11 January, 2011

News

Today’s

LookQuick

kaRaChI

Story on Page 07

NewS

Story on Page 10

FOReIgN NewS

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Sindh’s 70 percent people underfed rushdie dismisses call for ban on india entry assad firms up reform timetable, vows to crush terror

Zardari postponesDubai visit, goes to IslamabadKARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari, due to depart for Dubai ona private visit, left for Islamabad after a five-member bench of theSupreme Court (SC) decision to convene Pakistan Peoples Party(PPP) Core Committee (CC) meeting to discuss the apex court’sdecision. Zardari was scheduled to depart for Dubai on a 2-dayprivate visit on January 11. However, he postponed his engage-ments and left for Islamabad to chalk out a future strategy afterthe apex court decision. A five member bench of SC headed byAsif Saeed Khosa decided to refer six options relating to NationalReconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case to the ChiefJustice for constitution of a larger bench to hear the options.Sources privy to President Zardari told Pakistan Today that hewas scheduled to depart for Dubai for a two-day visit (January 11-12) for checkup at American Hospital Dubai. However, the presi-dent departed for Islamabad to a chair PPP core committeemeeting to review the situation. Presidential Spokesman Farhatul-lah Babar verified the information. He said that the president haspostponed his engagements in Karachi and arrived in Islamabadwhere he has called a PPP core committee meeting. However, herefused to specify the president engagements which were post-poned. Staff rePort

PML-N meeting today to discuss NRO case falloutLAHORE: The PML-N has summoned a crash meeting today(Wednesday) to put heads together on ensuing impacts of theSupreme Court ruling on the NRO case and consequences of thegovernment’s defiance in implementing it. PML-N PresidentNawaz Sharif would preside over the meeting to be attended byparty ace leaders to map out the party’s strategy to get the SC deci-sion implemented. The decision to this effect was taken during animportant meeting held at Nawaz’s residence in Raiwind. Leaderof the Opposition in national Assembly Nisar Ali Khan and PunjabCM Shahbaz Sharif were present in the meeting. The meeting alsoresolved to exert maximum pressure on the government to imple-ment the SC verdict in its true letter and spirit. It observed thathiding behind Article 248 implied “something fishy” and saidblaming courts of bigotry was conspiracy to blackmail the judici-ary. The meeting also discussed the letter sent by JUI-F chief Fa-zlur Rehman for conveying his recommendations for early polls.The letter entails suggestions regarding independent electionscommission, verified voter lists and caretaker setup. YaSir Habib

JUI-F, PML-N inch towards alliance ISLAMABAD: The ice finally melted between Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)on Tuesday when Maulana Fazlur Rehman, apparently disap-pointed with the fate of the PPP-led coalition government, ex-tended a hand of cooperation towards Nawaz, writing a letter tohim seeking evolving of joint opposition strategy. “The JUI-F hasasked the PML-N to make a joint strategy on various issues and inthis regard, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rahman has written aletter to PML-N President Mian Nawaz Sharif,” JUI-F spokesmanMaulana Amjad while told Pakistan Today. He said Fazl proposedto PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif to evolve a joint strategy of all oppo-sition parties. He said Fazl had further proposed in the letter thata joint strategy should be made for snap polls, as such a situationmight rise in the near future. Amjad said the JUI-F chief had alsoasked Nawaz that there should be a mechanism on bogus voterlists for the upcoming elections and an independent and fair elec-tion commission. Staff rePort

ISLAMABADMian abrar

THe Parliamentary Com-mittee on National Secu-rity (PCNS) on Tuesdayadopted most of the rec-ommendations for-

warded by the envoys’ conferencebesides finalising its recommenda-tions on new terms of engagementswith the US and NATO forces in waragainst terrorism.

A source told Pakistan Today thatthe committee had to extend its dead-line for drafting its recommendationsby another day as it had to incorpo-rate some “useful input” from foreignand defence ministries based on therecent communication with the USadministrations. “Some useful pro-posals have been received by the com-mittee from defence and foreignministries which were needed to in-corporate in the recommendations.This input was based on recent com-munication with US administrationincluding those interactions held re-cently,” the source added.

earlier, Foreign Minister HinaRabbani Khar and Secretary DefenceLt General (r) Naeem Khalid Lodhi

gave their input for a second time tothe members of the committee overthe subject matter. The committeediscussed in length the recommen-dations by Finance Ministry andlater approved them.

Committee chairman Raza Rab-bani told reporters that the committeemembers would have a final meetingtoday (Wednesday) afternoon to givefinal touches to the draft of recom-mendations, which would later be sentto Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilaniwho would later forward it to the jointsitting of parliament for approval.

“We would not give specific rec-ommendations to the joint sitting ofthe parliament and rather these wouldbe policy guidelines for new terms ofengagements with NATO and theISAF forces,” he said.

earlier, Foreign Minister HinaKhar said Pakistan and the US werenecessary for each other. Respond-ing to a question, the minister saidthere was no recommendation tolink the restoration of NATO sup-plies with provision of civil nucleartechnology to Pakistan. She said thatthe PCNS had adopted most of therecommendations forwarded by theenvoys’ conference.

Taliban appoint new

leader for Peshawar

Shura: reportMONItORINg DESK

A war-oriented American journal has published onits website that the Taliban have appointed a leaderwith close ties to Al Qaeda to lead one of their fourregional military councils in Afghanistan. According to a report by the Long War Journal,Sheikh Mohammed Aminullah, who in 2009 wasplaced on the United Nations Sanctions Commit-tee’s list of “individuals and entities associated withAl Qaeda,” has been named to lead the Taliban’s Pe-shawar Regional Military Shura, which is consid-ered responsible for operations in eastern andnorthern Afghanistan. The report also cited an arti-cle in the Hindu, an Indian daily, that Aminullah,reportedly listed as Fazeel-a-Tul Shaykh Abu Mo-hammed Ameen al Peshawari, had been named tolead the Peshawar Shura. The journal quoted two unnamed US intelligenceofficials confirming that Aminullah was appointedto lead the Peshawar Shura sometime last year,when he replaced Mullah Abdul Latif Mansour.According to the United Nations Sanctions Commit-tee designation, Aminullah runs the Ganj Madrassa,or religious school, which he allegedly used to re-cruit and provide support for Al Qaeda. Aminullahis also accused of supplying suicide vests to AlQaeda and Taliban suicide bombers, and supportingthe families of dead bombers.

Lawyers boycottcourts to protestcolleague’s murder

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/KARACHIinP

Lawyers across the country observed acomplete strike on Tuesday to protestagainst the killing of their colleague, for-mer Punjab Bar Council (PBC) memberNasrullah Warraich. The PBC had an-nounced to hold protests and observeblack day after Warraich was shot dead byunidentified people outside his residencein Lahore’s Gulshan-e-Ravi area.The lawyers in Lahore did not appear inthe Lahore High Court and lower courts,and observed the day with black flagshoisted at bar rooms and black ribbonstied around their arms. Lawyer’s unionsdemanded the government to immedi-ately arrest those responsible for War-raich’s murder and bring them to justice.They also criticised the Punjab police forshowing “complete negligence and ineffi-ciency”. The lawyers in Islamabad andRawalpindi also observed a complete strikeand boycotted court proceedings to expresssolidarity with their colleagues in Lahore.Similarly, lawyers of the Karachi Bar Asso-ciation also observed a strike on the call ofthe Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).

PCNS adopts most of envoys’ conference recommendations

A FLAG CERTAINLY WORTH MORE THAN

GARBAGE: Beaming 10-year-old scavenger

Yar Khan and his friend stand atop a garbage

pile from where they found this flag. Murtaza Ali

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SC verdiCt on nro

03wednesday, 11 January, 2011

NewsCOMMeNTthe verdict:

articles on Page 12-13

Things heating up

our faustian bargain: Does the loss of human life figure in the Pakistan army’s calculus?

Dr Hasan rizvi says:No country for elected men?: Destabilising democracy.

ali aftab Saeed says:Pervez MacArthur?: On Musharraf ’s return.

Harris bin Munawar says:The army’s ghairat: Only on selected issues.

aRTS & eNTeRTaINMeNTPose nude? never: Veena

Story on Page 17

SPORTSPakistan promise fresh start against england

Story on Page 18

LAHOREStaff rePort

ReACTING to theSupreme Court’s deci-sion in the NRO case,the PML-N on Tuesdaysaid the government

had announced an open war againstthe judiciary by not writing a letter tothe Swiss government.

PML-N Deputy Secretary Gen-eral Ahsan Iqbal said the Zardarigovernment was giving the masses aslip on NRO case. “It is ridiculousthat the government is mocking thecourt and people on the issue,” hesaid. “The NRO was black law. Notonly the PML-N but the allies of the

government also strongly opposed toit in parliament. Later, the PML-Nchallenged the NRO in the apex courtbut the central government kept pro-longing it to save its skin.”

PML-N senator Pervaiz Rashidasked if the government deemed theallegations levelled against PresidentAsif Zardari untrue, “what is the rea-son for the panic, as the Swiss courtsare not Pakistani courts which itdoesn’t trust”.

PTI Punjab President AhsanRashid said the NRO was a great in-justice with this country as around8,000 people were its beneficiaries.He said the cases of such peopleshould be opened and they should betreated according to law.

JI chief Munawar Hasan termedthe Supreme Court judgement in theNRO case prudent, and counselledthe PPP leadership to respect andimplement SC orders instead ofgoing for a confrontation. He saidthe government claimed to respect tothe Supreme Court but the presidentand the prime minister had bluntlyrejected its orders by declaring not towrite to the Swiss authorities.

He said the Supreme Court hadalready given two years to the gov-ernment to implement its judgementin the NRO but in stead of imple-mentation, the rulers were continu-ously committing contempt of court.

PML likeminded Provincial Sec-retary Information Muhammad Asif

said the rulers were trying to seek po-litical martyrdom by consideringthemselves above the law and theconstitution.

JI Secretary General LiaqatBaloch said the government was de-termined to protect corruption andwas showing disrespect to the judi-ciary’s orders. He said in view of thecourt orders, the PPP workers shouldget rid of their corrupt leadership.

Meanwhile, PML-N women wing(Punjab) led by Joint Secretary Kan-wal Nauman staged a protest demon-strations against the government’sobstinacy on the NRO case demand-ing dismissal of President Asif AliZardari and Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani.

Govt has declared waragainst judiciary: PML-N

LAHOREiMran aDnan

The social media has been flooded with SOScalls for the release of 14-year-old MadinaAnwar, who is in the custody of abductorssince May 17, 2011.

Social and human rights activists fromall over the world are constantly appealingto the country’s leadership to help the poorfamily, but neither the president or primeminister nor any other senior governmentofficial has so far offered the poor family anysupport, Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday.

Talking to Pakistan Today, father ofManida Anwar, Shamsul Anwar, revealedthat he did not receive a single phone callfrom government high ups. However, alarge number of people from all over thecountry approached him for financial sup-port. He said he was running from pillar topost to save his daughter, but neither thegovernment nor the police were helpinghim. Being an employee of the PakistanArmy, Anwar said he served Pakistan forover 17 years, but in these trying times hedid not see any hope from anywhere.

He pointed out that the captors had de-manded a ransom of Rs 1.8 million for thereturn of his daughter before January 12. Toa question, he said he did not receive a sin-gle sympathy call from any serving militaryofficial. Anwar disclosed that a retired

colonel, who was his unit in charge, con-tacted him over phone and assured him fullsupport. He added that noted human rightsactivist Ansar Burney, who was leaving forDubai, also contacted him on phone and as-sured help.

Meanwhile, social media users are rais-ing numerous questions that raise questionsabout the government’s tall claims of goodgovernance.TwITTER’S nEvER EnDIng TIME-LInE SHOwS: “The police wouldn’t helpShamsul Anwar. Why would they? Aren’tthey all involved? #unfairworld #Justice-ForShamsulAnwar #truestory,” “NRO, ver-dict, Supreme Court, Chief Justice, bla blabla…. everything looks so small. Bigger chal-lenge is… #JusticeForShamsulAnwar,”“Had Shamsul Anwar been a high rank offi-cer in the #army, would things be differentfor him? #unfairworld #PakArmy #Justice-ForShamsulAnwar,” “Can’t stop thinkingabout Madina Anwer. She is a year older tomy own daughter. Come home soon darlingyour pa waits #JusticeForShamsulAnwar,”“I read the whole story and I am willing todonate $1000 #JusticeForShamsulAnwar,”“@AnsarBurney thank u sir as always ustepped in on time hope #JusticeForSham-

sulAnwar is achieved & his daughter ishome ASAP stay blessed,” “@marvisirmed:Good progress #JusticeForShamsulAnwar.Political, military authorities on board. V rnow waiting 4 abductors’ call @AnsarBur-ney,” “7- Influential anchors, I beg you tokindly kindly kindly reach out to authoritieson your own. Put pressure, Please #Justice-ForShamsulAnwar,” and it goes on and on.

What is Madina Anwar’s fault?Madina Anwar’s only fault is that she is

a daughter of a retired military lance naik,Shamsul Anwar, who saved the lives of hun-dreds of worshippers by risking his own life.

It was January 1, 2001, when Anwar en-countered some terrorists at Jamia Mosqueof Dhoke Gujran at Misrial Road,Rawalpindi. He helped the law enforcementagencies to arrest one terrorist red handedwhen he (terrorist) was planting some ex-plosives in the basement of the mosque,while the Imam was delivering his sermon.

In the bid to save the worshipers, hesustained three bullet fires in his left leg andremained in hospital for over a year.

His courage helped the law enforcementagencies to arrest as many as 17 terrorist ofthe outfit on the information provided bythe nabbed terrorist.

Though his bravery saved the lives ofhundreds of worshippers, his courageproved lethal for his own family, as the ter-rorists warned him of “teaching him a les-son”, and they did.

During his treatment in hospital, he andhis family were given complete security, butit was withdrawn after a year.

The unfortunate spell of the familystarted when after five years of the episode,same terrorist outfit kidnapped his two sons– Mohammad Yaseen, 16, a student of 10thclass, and Faizullah, 14, a 9th class studentof Noor School in Dhoke Gujran – on May15, 2006 from their school in broad daylight.

He immediately contacted the local po-lice, but when it refused to register the casehe contacted his parent department, thearmy. Unfortunately, he did not receive aprompt response.

Meanwhile, the terrorists contacted himon phone in November 2006 and de-manded Rs 1.4 million as ransom for the re-lease of his sons. He once again contactedthe military, who took prompt action and in-volved the political agent to take actionagainst terrorist group. But political agentsuggested he pay the ransom so that theycould arrest captors red-handed after the

safe release of his sons. He thought the sug-gestion was apt, but could not go with it asit could cost him his sons’ life.

However, the terrorist were observingall activities and resultantly, Anwar had tocollect the body of his eldest son – 16-year-old Mohammad Yaseen Anwar – in a gunnybag. The terrorist brutally slaughtered theyoung boy, in the presence of his youngerbrother.

Anwar’s miseries did not end there.After disposing all his saving, he man-

aged to get his younger son – 14-year-oldFaizullah – released after paying the Rs 1.4million ransom.

But when Faizullah returned, he fell se-riously ill and doctors diagnosed that he wassuffering from blood cancer because thecaptors had injected intoxicating medicinesinto his body during detention.

Then, it was the turn of the unfortunatedaughter Madina Anwar, who was kid-napped on May 17, 2011 from her school atMisrial Road, Rawalpindi and shifted toKurram Agency.

Again, police kept on with its traditionalattitude and showed him the door.

The young girl is still in the custody ofthe captors, who gave a deadline of January12 to his father for the payment of Rs 1.8million as ransom. His father awaits a mir-acle; otherwise, God forbid, he may have tocollect another gunny bag.

Clash of institutions a threat

to Pakistan, says ShujaatISLAMABAD: Terming the clash of institutions athreat to the country, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid(PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain onTuesday said the leaderships of all political partiesand institutions should have a dialogue to steer thecountry out of crisis. “We should stick to the policy ofreconciliation, as in the current scenario neither thejudiciary nor the military and the executive can af-ford extreme steps,” he told reporters after chairing aparliamentary party meeting of the PML-Q. Themeeting was called to discuss the situation develop-ing in the country after the Supreme Court’s verdicton the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO)case. He said the ongoing situation in the countryrequired prudence and a cool temper. Staff rePort

Retired army official’s heroics bring him agonising misery

ISLAMABADStaff rePort

To ensure transparency and reliabil-ity of the 6th population census, theStatistics Division has proposed thatthe National Assembly StandingCommittee on the economic AffairsDivision recommend that the gov-ernment freeze all quotas under1998 census to counter provincial ef-forts to inflate population figures toget larger shares from federal re-sources allocated.

Briefing the committee, ChiefCensus Commissioner (CCC) saidthat India has frozen quotas whichhad helped depoliticise the censusand produced a more reliable set ofdata. Committee Chairman MalikAzmat Khan said the committee willhold another meeting to finalise itsrecommendations.

The committee was informedthat the house listing exercise wascompleted in April-May 2011 andpopulation census was planned to beheld in September-October 2011.However, it could not be executed asthe Council of Common Interests(CCI) in August decided that a sepa-rate meeting between the Prime Min-ister and provincial Chief Ministerswill be held to discuss outstanding is-sues. Since the meeting has not beenheld, the planned exercise could notbe carried out even though every-thing was ready for implementation.

The CCC informed that thehouse listing survey showed a 3 to 6percent increase in houses in Sindhbut for the rest of the province theywere stable. Houses in KhyberPakhtunkhwa also increased. InPakhtun areas of Balochistan therewas an increase but in Baloch areas

there were difficulties in gettinghousing data. He said some areaswere not covered in Punjab.

When asked what were the rea-sons for patchy work in Balochistan,he said the census teams were notprovided cover by the law enforce-ment agencies, while in Pakhtunareas cooperation was offered for thehousing census. He said the Punjabgovernment has not supported thework of census staff that resulted infailure to finalise its housing data.However, he said that the housingcensus was just a management plan-ning exercise to identify trends forpopulation census, which will bedone under GIS parameters and helpfrom Google maps will be taken. Inreply to question, CCC said that inter-national bench mark is to completethe population census within sixmonths of the house listing survey.

Freeze quotas to produce accurate census gujranwala citizensprotest against gas,power outages

gUJRANWALAStaff rePort

Responding to the call of GujranwalaChamber of Commerce, businessmen,industrialist and workers staged a hugedemonstration to condemn unscheduledgas and electricity load shedding atChanda Qila bypass on Tuesday. Thedemonstrators blocked the road for aboutthree hours, hampering the traffic flow toLahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha and Hafiz-abad. Workers unions, industrialists andbusinessmen strongly condemned the un-scheduled gas and electricity load shed-ding and warned the authorities of direconsequences. Chamber President Za-heerul Haq said failed policies of author-ities had crippled the economy and theindustrial sector was breathing its last.

Today’s

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04wednesday, 11 January, 2012

NewsIt said according to clause (f) ofArticle 62(1) of the constitution,“A person shall not be qualifiedto be elected or chosen as amember of parliament unless heis sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and ameen,there being no declaration to thecontrary by a court of law.”

The court noted that it hadthe option to hand down a decla-ration in terms of clause (f) ofArticle 62(1) of the constitutionwhich finding or declaration mayhave the effect of a permanentclog on the prime minister’squalification for election to, orbeing chosen as, a member ofparliament or a provincial as-sembly.

The court noted that some-what similar oaths had also beentaken by the co-chairman of thePakistan People’s Party (PPP)before entering the office of thepresident of Pakistan and by thefederal law minister before en-tering the office of a federal min-ister and apparent breaches oftheir oaths may also entail thesame consequences.

In its second option, thecourt held that it may initiateproceedings against the primeminister, law minister, and thelaw secretary for committingcontempt of court by persist-ently, obstinately and contuma-ciously resisting, failing orrefusing to implement or executein full the directions of the courtin the NRO verdict. “It may notbe lost sight of that, apart fromthe other consequences, byvirtue of the provisions of clauses(g) and (h) of Article 63(1) readwith Article 113 of the constitu-tion a possible conviction onsuch a charge may entail a dis-qualification from being electedor chosen as, and from being, amember of parliament or aprovincial assembly for at least aperiod of five years,” the courtheld.

In its third option, the courtheld that in exercise of its powersunder Article 187 of the constitu-tion read with Rules 1 and 2 ofOrder XXXII of the SupremeCourt Rules, 1980 and all otherenabling provisions, it may ap-point a commission to executethe relevant parts of the NROjudgement and consequent di-rections.

The fourth option states thatalthough in the present proceed-ings nobody had so far raised theissue pertaining to the protec-tions contemplated by Article248 of the constitution, yet ifanybody was likely to be affectedby exercise of these options bythe court and wished to be heardon that question, an opportunitymay be afforded to them in thatrespect before exercise of any ofthese options.

The fifth option states that itis a statutory duty of the NABchairman under the National Ac-countability Ordinance of 1999to proceed against any personprima facie involved in misuse ofauthority while holding a public

office. It said on January 3, thecourt had directed the NABchairman to attend to the mat-ters of appointment of AdnanKhawaja as Managing Directorof the Oil and Gas DevelopmentCompany Limited (OGDCL)against merit and appoint-ment/promotion of Ahmed RiazSheikh as additional director ofthe Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) at a time when both ofthem were convicted personsand to proceed against all thosewho were responsible for suchappointments/promotions.

The court said the chairmanhad also failed so far to initiateany action against former attor-ney general Malik MuhammadQayyum. It said the chairmanhad not only failed to advanceany satisfactory explanation forhis inaction but had also mani-fested defiance towards the courtby categorically refusing to carryout the court’s directions. Thecourt noted that such inaction onhis part in derogation of hisstatutory duty prima facieamounted to misconduct attract-ing the last part of Section 6(b)(i)of the National AccountabilityOrdinance of 1999 dealing withremoval of the chairman from of-fice. The court noted further thatthe chairman had attempted toscreen, shield and protect therelevant persons from criminalcharges, which may attract con-sequences in some criminal andother laws. In these circum-stances, appropriate recommen-dations or directions may bemade or issued by the court insuch regards. The sixth optionstates that the constitutional bal-ance vis-à-vis the trichotomy andseparation of powers betweenthe legislature, the judiciary andthe executive is very delicatelypoised and if in a given situationthe executive is bent upon defy-ing a final judicial verdict and isready to go to any limits in suchdefiance, then instead of insist-ing upon the executive to imple-ment the judicial verdict andthereby running the risk ofbringing down the constitutionalstructure itself, the court may ex-ercise judicial restraint and leavethe matter to the better judge-ment of the people of the countryor their representatives in parlia-ment to appropriately deal withthe delinquent. “After all, the ul-timate ownership of the constitu-tion and of its organs,institutions, mechanisms andprocesses rests with the people ofthe country and there may be sit-uations where the people them-selves may be better suited toforce a recalcitrant to obey theconstitution,” the court noted.

The court expressed dismayover the attorney general, NABchairman and NAB prosecutorgeneral for showing no progressin complying with the court’sorder in the NRO implementa-tion case. The court also rejected

the reports submitted by theNAB prosecutor general in whichhe categorically concluded thatthe bureau had decided not toproceed in the matters of AdnanKhawaja and Ahmad RiazSheikh. The court termed the re-ports utterly unsatisfactory andheld that an attempt had beenmade through them to screen,shield and protect all those inpublic offices who were involvedin appointments/promotions ofthe convicted persons. The courtstated that the accountabilityprosecutor general had con-firmed the fact that in the reportsa clear conclusion about lack ofcriminal intent of all concernedand involved had been recordedwithout even holding a formalenquiry or investigation, whichthe court found to be “strangeand unusual”. The court said theNAB prosecutor general hadgone on to submit that even inthe matter of proceedingsagainst Qayyum, a decision hadbeen taken by the accountabilitywatchdog not to initiate or takeany proceedings despite a cleardirection having been issued bythe court in that respect. “TheNAB chairman has not onlyowned the reports submitted bythe prosecutor general but hasadopted a defiant attitude bystating that the decision whetherto proceed against any personunder the National Accountabil-ity Ordinance 1999 or not is a de-cision which falls within hisexclusive jurisdiction and he hasdecided not to proceed againstany person in the matters ofAdnan Khawaja, Ahmad RiazSheikh and Malik MuhammadQayyum,” the court said.

The court said further thatthe chairman had also stated inmost categorical terms that noenquiry or investigation waswarranted in those matters andhe had stated so in contemptu-ous disregard of the fact that thecourt had already passed anorder for taking proceedings inthose matters. “We have particu-larly noticed the defiant postureand position adopted by thechairman and have been struckby his willful disobedience to theearlier directions issued by thecourt. It appears that instead ofobeying the directions, he hasdecided to take the court head-on, which attitude we find to becontumacious, to say the least,”the court said in its order. It saiddespite clear orders, the law sec-retary did not turn up on Janu-ary 3 on account of being abroadand even today he did not appearand the court was informed thathe was unwell and was receivingmedical treatment, but nothinghad been produced before thecourt to substantiate the claim.“It appears that he prefers for-eign sojourns over his commit-ments before the highest court ofthe country,” the court noted.

Attorney General Maulvi

Anwarul Haq stated that therewas no change in the situationsince the last date of hearing andno step in furtherance of thecourt’s earlier directions hadbeen taken by anybody duringthe interregnum. Ahsan Raja,former additional interior secre-tary tried to convince the courtthat he had no malicious intentin the matter of promotion ofAhmad Riaz Sheikh.

The court noted it appearedthat all concerned had con-sciously decided to defy and dis-obey the court. It said it hadalready shown a lot of grace andmagnanimity in the matter andhad demonstrated a lot of pa-tience and restraint in this re-gard over the last two years or so,but in the present dismal andmost unfortunate state of affairs,the court was left with no otheroption but to take appropriateactions in order to uphold andmaintain its dignity and to sal-vage and restore the delicatelypoised constitutional balance inaccord with the norms of consti-tutional democracy. “We areconscious that the actions wepropose to take are quite un-pleasant but maintaining thenecessary constitutional poiseand balance is a part of our du-ties, particularly when we havemade an oath before AllahAlmighty to ‘preserve, protectand defend the constitution’ andto ‘in all circumstances to doright to all manner of people, ac-cording to law, without fear orfavour, affection or ill-will’,” Thecourt said.

“When Article 189 of theconstitution gives the decisionsof the Supreme Court ‘binding’effect and when Article 190 ofthe constitution commands in nouncertain terms that ‘All execu-tive and judicial authoritiesthroughout Pakistan shall act inaid of the Supreme Court’, theconstitution does not envision anexecutive professing only ‘re-spect’ towards the decisions ofthe Supreme Court but at thesame time derisively or disdain-fully paying little or no heed toimplementation or execution ofsuch decisions,” the court said.“Obedience to the command of acourt, and that too of the apexcourt of the country, is not agame of chess or a game of hideand seek. It is, of course, a seri-ous business and governance ofthe state and maintaining theconstitutional balance and equi-librium cannot be allowed to beheld hostage to political tomfool-ery or shenanigans. Article 5 ofthe constitution declares in mostunambiguous terms that loyaltyto the state is the basic duty ofevery citizen and obedience tothe constitution and law is theinviolable obligation of every cit-izen,” the court noted.

The court pointed out that ina recent interview the presidenthad categorically stated that

under his co-chairmanship hispolitical party had taken a polit-ical decision not to obey someparts of the judgement handeddown by the court in the NROcase.

The court said even theprime minister and the law min-ister had been harping on thesame theme for quite some timeon various occasions throughspeeches made on the floors ofthe National Assembly and Sen-ate, and also through print andelectronic media.

Their conduct in the matteralso went a long way in confirm-ing what they had been pro-claiming, the order said, addingthat such an attitude, approachand conduct prima facie showsthat the president, the primeminister and the law ministerhad allowed loyalty to a politicalparty and its decisions to out-weigh and outrun their loyalty tothe State and their “inviolableobligation” to obey the constitu-tion and all its commands.

“We may unhesitatingly ob-serve that in our country gov-erned by a constitution, politicalloyalty cannot be accepted asstronger than loyalty to the Stateand dictates of a political masteror party cannot be allowed to beput up as a defence to failure toobey the constitution,” the ordersaid. “Our government is the po-tent, the omnipresent teacher.For good or for ill, it teaches thewhole people by its example.Crime is contagious. If the gov-ernment becomes a lawbreaker,it breeds contempt for law; it in-vites every man to become a lawunto himself; it invites anarchy,”it said further.

“We, the judges of theSupreme Court, have made anoath before Allah Almighty to‘preserve, protect and defend theconstitution of Pakistan’ and,thus, it is our bounden duty totake appropriate action when-ever we find that the constitutionis not being obeyed or its expresscommands are, wittingly or oth-erwise, being disregarded. Letnobody forget that in the not-too-distant past we stuck to ourcommitment to the constitutionand constitutionalism and werenot shy of giving personal sacri-fices for fulfillment of that com-mitment,” the order said.

Meanwhile, the court issueda notice to the attorney generaldirecting him to address argu-ments before the court on nextdate of hearing, after obtaininginstructions from those con-cerned as to why any of the sixoptions may not be exercised bythe court in these matters.

The bench requested thechief justice to consider the de-sirability of hearing of these mat-ters on the next date of hearingby a larger bench of the court, onaccount of constitutional impor-tance of these matters and ad-journed the case for January 16,directing the attorney general,law secretary, NAB chairmanand NAB prosecutor general toensure their appearance beforethe court in person.

6 options, 6 daysContinued from page 1

Before the meeting of theheads of the coalition part-ners, President Zardari andPrime Minister Gilani alsoheld a one-on-one meeting todiscuss the situation and fi-nalise their strategy.

The coalition partnersmeeting was attended byChaudhry Shujaat Hussain,Asfandyar Wali Khan, Sena-tor Afrasiab Khattak, SenatorMir Israrullah Zehri, Dr Fa-rooq Sattar, Senator BabarKhan Ghauri, Munir KhanOrakzai, Syed KhursheedAhmed Shah, Senator DrBabar Awan, Raja PervezAshraf and spokesperson tothe president FarhatullahBabar.

A source said during themeeting, PML-Q PresidentChaudhry Shujaat Hussainand Awami National Party(ANP) chief Asfandyar WaliKhan advised the presidentand prime minister to review

their stance of defying courtorders and suggested that thematter be handled with care.

The source said that boththe senior politicians were ofthe view that opening toomany fronts at a time was notwise and rather the executiveshould observe restraint vis-à-vis its relations with majorstate institutions – the armedforces and the judiciary.

President’s spokesmanFarhatullah Babar said themeeting discussed currentpolitical situation with partic-ular reference to the most re-cent developments. Theheads of coalition partnersproposed that the session ofthe National Assembly be ur-gently called to discuss thelatest political issues.

Before the session of theNational Assembly, a jointmeeting the parliamentaryparties will be also held in theParliament House to workout the strategy to be adoptedduring the NA session.

Govt huddlingContinued from page 1

Malik revealsthe Sharifs’‘NRO deal’

he told reporters afterattending a meeting held toreview the implementationprocess of the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-BalochistanPackage. Reacting to Malik’stirade against Nawaz, PML-Ncentral leader Senator PervezRashid said the pieces ofpaper that were being madepublic by Malik had alreadybeen dumped in the dustbinof history by the SupremeCourt. “Rehman Malikshould not throw stones atothers while sitting in a glasshouse,” he said. The interiorminister said facing jail wasnot easy and Nawaz soughtpardon for himself and hisfamily members, signed adeal and left the nation toface a dictator. He also madepublic the documents signedby the PML-N leaders.

Continued from page 24

ISLAMABADMian abrar/taHir niaZ

THe governmentstood isolated onTuesday. The oppo-sition parties en-dorsed the Supreme

Court’s orders in the NationalReconciliation Ordinance(NRO) implementation caseand the government’s coalitionpartners also did not openlysupport it, suggesting that theysit on the fence, not clearly sid-ing with the Pakistan People’sParty (PPP), as constitutionalexperts also asked the govern-ment to either implement thecourt’s order or the prime min-ister should resign.

endorsing the SupremeCourt order, the oppositionparties advised the governmentto implement the apex courtorder in letter and spirit toavoid a confrontation with thejudiciary, with the PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) demanding the governmentimmediately announce freshelections. However, the allies ofthe PPP either declined to com-ment on the development ortook the middle ground in ex-pressing their views on whatwas being seen as a major blowto the government on the judi-cial and moral front. It seemedthat the coalition partners ofthe government were in a fixwhen they were approached forcomment on the apex courtorder.

The constitutional andlegal experts held opinion sim-ilar to the opposition parties,asking the government to im-plement the court’s order in let-ter and spirit or the primeminister should resign if he wasnot ready to implement theorder of the five-memberbench. When asked to the com-ment on the order, Senator HajiAdeel of the Awami National

Party (ANP), a coalition partnerof the PPP, declined to directlycomment on the development.However, he was sure that “thestage is being set to jeopardisethe Senate elections”. Whenfurther pressed for comment,he said: “I don’t want to com-ment on the SC order but onething is sure that all the politicalhustle and bustle is part of themain agenda that is aimed atblocking the Senate elections inthe presence of present assem-blies.”

Senator Tahir Mashhadi ofthe Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM), also an ally of thePPP, when contacted for his re-action on the SC order said hisparty’s Coordination Commit-tee would study the detailedorder and after that he wouldbe in a position to comment onthe issue.

PML-N Information Secre-tary Mushahidullah Khan toldPakistan Today that the gov-ernment should accept and im-plement the Supreme Courtdecision in letter and spirit.

Similarly, the legal com-munity also chose to side withthe court in pressing the PPP-led coalition government to im-plement the court orders.

Senator SM Zafar said nogovernment in any country ofthe world could have survivedafter such a verdict by the apexcourt and the government hadno grounds to stay in powerand run the country’s affairs.Justice (r) Tariq Mehmood alsoreferred to the sixth optionmentioned in the court verdictand said it provided the govern-ment with a choice to go forfresh elections. He said it alsoprovided the premier the op-tion to resign. Dr Farogh Nasimtermed the verdict anothertime-giving exercise, statingthat this was not an action andrather the court had given fur-ther options to the government.

NRO verdictcorners govtinto isolation

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wednesday, 11 January, 2012

Sindh’s 70 percent

people underfed

Nutrition survey

07

TRUCk aRT: a young artist applies finishing touches to his masterpiece at the Mauripur truck stand. AsiM rehMANi

KARACHIaftab CHanna

An alleged high-profile terrorist affiliatedwith a Sindhi nationalist party has been ar-rested from Steel Town, the Crime Investiga-tion Department (CID) claimed on Tuesday.

Headed by Operations Senior Superin-tendent of Police Fayyaz Khan, the CIDpromptly acted on a tip-off and appre-hended a most-wanted terrorist involvedin bomb blasts at railway tracks across theprovince.

CID sources claimed that the detainee,Saiful Bugti, is affiliated with the Jeay SindhMuttahida Mahaz (JSMM) and involved inblasts on rail routes.

They said that during the initial interro-gation, the detainee had admitted being affil-iated with the Shafi Burfat-led JSMM andbeing involved in bomb blasts.

“Bugti has also confessed to his involve-ment in terrorist activities for the past fiveyears. Police have shifted him to an undis-closed location for further investigation,” theyadded.

KARACHIiMDaD SooMro

Following the orders of the Supreme Court,the Sindh election Commission on Tuesdayconvened a meeting with representatives ofthe transgender community at the commis-sion’s provincial head office in Karachi to en-sure that the names of their communitymembers are entered in the voters list aheadof the upcoming elections.

Leaders of the transgender communitywould be asked whether they want theirnames to be entered in the ‘male’ column orthe ‘female’ column, as many communitymembers have female names, while othershave male names.

The apex court had ordered the govern-ment to ensure that the names of the mem-bers of the transgender community areentered in the voters list, as this would provebeneficial for them to acquire proper jobs.

Provincial election Commissioner-SindhSono Khan Baloch had contacted ShemaleFoundation President Almas Boby, GenderInteractive Alliance President Bindiya Ranaand other representatives of the transgendercommunity to attend a high-level meeting atthe Sindh election commission’s office.

Sources said that three aspects would becovered in the meeting – ensuring registra-tion of the names of the transgender commu-nity members, verifying their addresses andtheir preferred place for vote-casting, andasking them for their preferred gender (‘male’or ‘female’) column in the list.

If the community’s representatives wouldlike to provide suggestions of their own, theywould be encouraged to do so, added thesources.

The meeting would be attended by theSindh election commissioner, election Com-mission-Islamabad joint secretary, and SocialWelfare secretary and director.

Male or female?Transgenders willnow have a choice■ Sindh election Commission holds meeting with

transgender community representatives

Federal big shots in da (Sindh) House!■ high-profile federal bureaucrats’ ‘permanent’ occupation of Islamabad-based Sindh house’s VIP suites discussed in Sindh assembly

‘Nationalist-cum-terrorist’ held

KARACHIiSMaiL DiLaWar

TUeSDAY saw a hugehue and cry in theSindh Assembly as theprovincial lawmakersquestioned the “per-

manent” occupation of VIP suitesof the Islamabad-based SindhHouse by high-profile federal bu-reaucrats.

“Yes, some government offi-cials have permanently occupiedsome rooms of the Sindh House,Islamabad,” said Sindh Chief Min-ister Qaim Ali Shah, also the SindhWorks and Services Minister, inhis written reply to a question ofMember Provincial Assembly

Fayaz Ali Butt.It is interesting to note here

that most of the occupiers ofaround 10 VIP rooms of the SindhHouse have backing of either thePrime Minister House or the Pres-ident House.

The occupiers named in thechief minister’s written reply in-clude Nazir Ahmed Mallah, ChiefSecretary Officer c/o PresidentHouse; Ghulam Qadir Jamot, Di-rector General Prime Minister’sTask Force; Jamil Soomro, MediaAdviser c/o President House; GulKhan Kaka, c/o President House;Syed Khalid Ali Raza Gardezi, Ad-ditional Secretary Finance, SindhServices, General Administrationand Coordination, Camp Islam-

abad; Muhammad IshaqueLashari, Director General AdminPresident House; Bilal Sheikh, c/oPresident House; MuhammadSaleem Khan, Secretary Ports andShipping Corporation; AbdulGhaffar Soomro, Additional Secre-tary Minorities Affairs; and Ghu-lam Sarwar Dars, PersonalSecretary to Minister for OverseasPakistanis.

In response to supplemen-tary questions of the members,Sindh Law Minister AyazSoomro, responding in place ofthe chief minister, said that theofficials’ stay in the 27 VIP suitesshould normally range betweentwo days and a fortnight, andthat too with a cost.

While the law minister was ina defensive mood, lawmakers likeHumera Alwani, Abdul Sattar Ra-jpar, Arif Mustafa Jatoi andAleemur Rehman expressed con-cern over the permanent occupa-tion of the rooms that they saidwere meant for the residence of of-ficials from Sindh.

The speaker was critical whenSoomro clarified that the suits’ oc-cupation was taking place on anon-and-off basis and was not per-manent.

Later, lawmakers from thePakistan Muslim League-Func-tional objected as the entire pro-ceedings of Tuesday, a privatemembers day, were dedicated togeneral discussion on a resolution

paying tribute to the late PakistanPeople’s Party’s founding chair-man Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

F-League’s Nusrat Sehar Ab-basi was on her feet when thespeaker was about to call it a dayat around 2:00 pm, demandingthat the members be allowed totable their private resolutions.

The speaker, however, rejectedher request due to time con-straints, thanks to the lawmakerswho had arrived late.

The day had seen the speakercalling the provincial legislature toorder at 11:30am, almost an hourand a half later than its scheduledtime, 10am.

“What is our fault in this?”asked Abbasi, to which the speaker

said, “We can’t run the house with-out members.”

The house, which was in ses-sion from 11:30am to 2:15pm,passed the most-discussed reso-lution in view of the late Bhutto’s84th birth anniversary on Janu-ary 5.

A short debate also took placein the house, with the memberswanting the house to be adjourneduntil Friday, and the speaker in-sisting that Saturday should alsobe a working day in that case.

“It is in the rules,” Sindh In-formation and electric Power Min-ister Shazia Marri was quick toremind the speaker, who then saidthat the house would meet againon Friday at 10am.

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karachi06PakistaN today

wednesday, 11 January, 2012

KMC administrator inspects Banaras Flyover construction

KARACHIaftab CHanna

Aiming to upgrade its net-work of pipelines and bringdown the penalties imposedby the Oil and Gas Regula-tory Authority (OGRA), thecash-strapped Sui SouthernGas Company (SSGC) re-quires at least Rs 30 billionso that the precious naturalgas could be saved fromwastage, Pakistan Today has

learnt.Gas distribution compa-

nies were set up in the mid1950s i.e. (the Karachi GasCompany and the Indus GasCompany) and the networkof pipeline was laid in urbanareas including Karachi andHyderabad.

But now, the networkhas become overloaded anddilapidated, causing thecompany to pay huge penal-ties that were imposed by

OGRA under the head of‘Unaccounted For Gas’(UFG) benchmark set by theauthority.

Sources said the SSGCcan efficiently provide natu-ral gas to industrial, com-mercial and domesticcustomers. However, the fi-nancial position of the com-pany is weakening due toimposition of financialpenalties on account of UFG.

Under the new plan, the

company plans to undertakemassive renovation ofpipelines in a bid to bringdown the UFG to an accept-able level.

It would require deploy-ing all financial and techni-cal resources to achieve thetask in time, not to only toavoid further penalties byOGRA but also to help im-prove the energy situation ofthe country by saving pre-cious gas.

■ gas company needs to bring down penalties imposed on it by OgRa for wasted gas

KARACHIStaff rePort

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation(KMC) Administrator Muhammad Hus-sain Syed visited the Banaras Flyover,Shahrah-e-Noorjehan and other ongoingdevelopment projects on Tuesday.

He was accompanied by TechnicalServices Director Altaf G Memon, SeniorHealth Director Dr Shoukat Zaman, Dis-trict West Administrator Nazir Lakhaniand West Chief engineer Subhan Jatoi.

Banaras Flyover would be opened fortwo-way traffic this week. The adminis-trator directed the officials concerned tofinish the repair work and shifting ofpipelines passing beneath the AbdullahGirls College Roundabout within 10 days.

The administrator said that the fly-over is being completed at a cost of Rs 1.2billion and Rs 700 million are beingspent on the construction of roads pass-

ing around and beneath it and the shift-ing of underground water and seweragepipelines.

“The construction of three under-passes and five flyovers in the city willalso begin soon while the hurdles in therenovation of Shahrah-e-Noorjehan andShahrah-e-Qaddafi are being removedand their construction will be completedduring the current year,” he added.

The administrator said action wouldbe taken against those involved in dam-aging water supply pipelines.

“Pipes with six feet width were man-ufactured by Pakistan Steel and the firstconsignment of these pipes would be re-ceived in March 2012,” he added. “Theother lines would be changed after newones are supplied.”

He also said the Sher Shah Suri Roadthat connects with the Banaras Flyoverwould also be completed during the cur-rent month.

SSGC needs Rs 30bn toupgrade supply network

KARACHIPreSS reLeaSe

A photo exhibition titled “50 years of Pak-istan-German Development Cooperation”was inaugurated on Monday at theGoethe-Institut Pakistan by Consul Gen-eral of Germany in Karachi Dr Tilo Klin-ner and Goethe-Institut Pakistan DirectorDr Markus Litz.

The exhibition would run until the endof the current month.

Speaking on the occasion, the Germanconsul general said half a century ago in1961, the governments of Pakistan andGermany launched their developmentpartnership.

Pakistan was therefore one of Ger-many’s first partner countries. Since then,this cooperation has formed an importantdimension in the relationship between thetwo countries and has significantly con-

tributed to deepening the ties betweenboth the governments, as well as betweenthe private sector and civil society of bothcountries. “Thus, when celebrating the 50years of development cooperation, we alsocelebrate a rich history of institutional andhuman interactions which has laid a solidfoundation for a long-standing friendshipbetween our peoples,” he noted.

The consul general thanked all Pak-istani partners at all levels, in particularthe colleagues in the economic Affairs Di-vision in the Ministry of Finance, for manyyears of harmonious and fruitful coopera-tion.

“It is this positive experience that per-mits us to look ahead to the future withconfidence for further joint efforts. Overthe past five decades, Pakistan and Ger-many have implemented numerous devel-opment projects and it has been madepossible to have selected examples and

impacts of these projects presented in thephoto-exhibition in words and pictures,”he said.

Today, the priority areas of Pakistan-German development cooperation aregood governance, energy, health and basicand vocational education.

In addition, the German Ministry foreconomic Cooperation and Developmentsupports Pakistan with refugee aid and incoping with natural disasters, most re-cently following the floods in 2010 and2011.

In October last year, the parliamen-tary state secretary in the German FederalMinistry for economic Cooperation andDevelopment, Gudrun Kopp, visited Is-lamabad and announced that Germanywould support emergency aid measuresfor the survivors of 2011 floods in Sindhand Balochistan provinces with 5.6 mil-lion euros.

50 years of Pak-german partnership celebrated in pictures

german Consul general Dr Tilo klinner, goethe-Institut Pakistan Director Dr Markus Litz

and other some other guests at the exhibition.

KARACHIPreSS reLeaSe

The balloting ceremony for plots inblocks A, C and D of the Naya Naz-imabad project was organised on Tues-day.

Naya Nazimabad is designed to pro-vide secure and affordable housing forthe progressive middle-income class. Itoffers residential units, along with awide range of amenities i.e. schools, col-leges and university, hospitals and clin-ics, parks and shopping malls. Theproject spans a vast area and is locatedclose to North Nazimabad.

“It gives us immense pleasure to in-form you that the full quota of plots hasbeen booked and we are still receivingapplications. We owe this success to the

people of Karachi and our friends andassociates who placed their trust andconfidence in us,” Arif Habib, chairmanof the Arif Habib Group, said on the oc-casion.

Also present at the ceremony werethe Naya Nazimabad project’s seniormanagement and partners, customersand other stakeholders.

The project’s residential zone isbased on single-unit and double-storeyhouses and plots measuring 120, 160and 240 square yards.

Other than premier amenities, theNaya Nazimabad project would haveoverhead water tanks and an efficientsewerage management system.

Residents would be facilitated by aninternal transport grid and securitywould be ensured through gates,

staffing and close circuit security cam-eras. An international standard cricketstadium is also on the verge of comple-tion.

“The only reason why I was con-vinced to buy a house in Naya Naz-imabad was because of the level ofsecurity offered. It is a great burden offmy mind that my kids finally have a se-cure environment to enjoy in,” said oneof the customers.

Another customer said, “It is veryheartening to see such a brilliant projectbeing developed in Karachi. I have al-ways been reluctant to invest in housingprojects due to untrustworthy buildersbut this time I am convinced of thebuilder’s credibility. I am sure soon thekeys of my future house would behanded over to me soon.”

Balloting for plots ofNaya Nazimabad project

City to host 1st internationalwomen leaders’ summit

KARACHIPreSS reLeaSe

As part of the Women inBusiness Conference Seriesfor professional women, aninternational women lead-ers’ summit is being organ-ised on January 25 inKarachi.

The speakers would in-clude Rokia Afzal Rehman,a former minister fromBangladesh who will de-liver the keynote addresson “enterprising Women-Lessons from South andFar east Asia”.

Social activist and voice

of Afghan Radio during theAfghan war Jamila Mujahedfrom Afghanistan wouldshare her experiences on“Tools of education forAfghan Women duringWar”, while famous authorelif Shafak from Turkeywould speak on “Women,Modern Day Living andSpirituality”. The first Pak-istani emmy Award winnerSharmeen Obaid Chinoywould discuss “Women Fac-ing Challenges of extrem-ism”.

Representatives ofleading business organisa-tions including Asad Umar,

Naved A Khan and MianAbrar would discuss role ofbusinesses to promote gen-der diversity. A panel mod-erated by Dr Huma Baqai,associate professor at theIBA Karachi, would includesenior bureaucrat BegumNasreen Haque, AyeshaAziz, Nadira Panjwani, andYasmin Lari to discuss thesuccess of women in publicand private sectors. AyeshaTammy Haq will lead thesession on “Local entre-preneurs Success Stories”with Sana Safinaz, FarzeenIrtizaz and local entrepre-neurs.

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KARACHIaMar guriro

DeSPITe being an agriculturalprovince, Sindh is the poorestand the most food-deprivedprovince of the country with70 percent of its total popula-

tion (estimated at 35 million) facing foodinsecurity, according to the National Nu-trition Survey (NNS) 2011.

The national survey reveals that thewomen, especially mothers, and childrenare the worst sufferers of the food insecu-rity in the province, which contributes 70percent to the country’s total tax collectionrevenue and 34 percent towards gross do-mestic product.

Due to lack of food, 51 percent of thewomen population and 52 percent preg-nant women suffer from acute anaemia.The worsened food insecurity has caused73 percent of the population to suffer frommalnutrition and around half of the chil-dren in Sindh are malnourished.

Health experts and Sindh NutritionCell officials have termed the survey“more than alarming” and urged the gov-ernment departments and internationaldonors to work together for overcomingthe problem.

The Aga Khan University (AKU) incollaboration with United Nations Chil-dren’s Fund (UNICeF) carried out theNNS 2011. The nutrition survey has beenconducted after a decade as the last onewas done in 2001.

The survey reveals that little haschanged over the last decade in terms ofcore maternal and childhood nutrition in-dicators in the province. Not only food in-security, but the NNS 2011 report alsowent on to add that other indicators ofbasic healthcare are also worse than aver-age.

The survey report also states that alarge number of people in Sindh are with-out access to fresh drinking water whilechildren under five years of age are suffer-ing from abdominal diseases and diar-rhoea because of consumingcontaminated water.

The ceremony titled “Dissemination ofNational Nutrition Survey 2011” to an-nounce the results of the survey was heldat a local hotel on Tuesday.

The event was also attended by SindhHealth Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed,Health Secretary Hashim Raza Zaidi, gov-ernment officials and representatives ofUNICeF, World Food Programme (WFP),Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),World Health Organisation (WHO) andother donor agencies including UnitedStates Assistance for International Devel-opment (USAID), AusAID and UnitedKingdom’s Department For InternationalDevelopment (DFID).

Disclosing the details of different in-dicators of the survey, AKU ProfessorSajid Soofi said that in absence of coordi-nation between different government pro-grammes running at different levels toovercome food insecurity, no significantresults were seen.

“In the last ten years since the last sur-vey, no improvement has been witnessedin the nutrition status of mothers and chil-dren in Sindh, despite several governmentprogrammes in place in the province,” hesaid.

Prof Soofi was of the view that due tothe floods last year and this season’s heavymonsoon downpours, a large population

in the province was displaced and are fac-ing acute food shortage.

Terming the data of the national sur-vey “more than alarming”, Sindh Nutri-tion Cell Manager Dr Salma Kausar saidmalnutrition, especially among women,pregnant women and children, is theworst. “It is not the sole responsibility ofthe provincial health department, and weneed multidimensional approach withhelp from different departments, includ-ing social welfare and agriculture, to endthis important issue,” she said.

Talking about the reasons behind in-creased malnutrition, Kausar said amongother reasons low ratio of literacy amongmothers and poverty were the most im-portant. “Internationally, malnutrition of

15 percent population in a region is sup-posed to be an alarming situation;whereas, in Sindh over 30 percent of thepopulation is underfed, which is unaccept-able,” she said.

Speaking on the occasion, the provin-cial health minister termed the nationalsurvey result as “ground realities”. “Dur-ing the past two years, Pakistan includingSindh went through the worst disasters inits history, including floods and monsoonrains; thereby, increasing food insecurityin the province,” he said.

“We are running several programmeson nutrition and immunisation but notgetting the [desired] results. There areseveral other reasons but the major causeof the failure of these projects is malnutri-

tion,” Ahmed said. “For achieving the tar-get next time, we are planning to includethe Population Welfare Department andother government department in theprocess.”

UNICeF’s health specialist Dr AsifFarrukhi said the UN, including UNICeF,are working along with Sindh governmentto overcome the problem of malnutritionin the province.

Sindh’s 70 percent people underfed■ National Nutrition Survey 2011 reveals no progress over food security in the province in a decade

karachi 07PakistaN today

wednesday, 11 January, 2012

KARACHIaaMir MaJeeD

Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdicton the National Reconciliation Ordinance(NRO) case, the Pakistan People’s Party(PPP) Sindh said the ordinance was a po-litical agreement that helped restoredemocracy in the country, but some ben-eficiaries are now trying to evade the nextgeneral elections by bringing the pact toan end.

“Some beneficiaries of the NRO are

trying to sabotage this agreement,” PPPSindh Secretary General Taj Haider toldPakistan Today.

“These political beneficiaries havetried several times to have the Swiss casesreopened and are also trying to sabotagethe next general elections,” he added.

“They have always tried to create theimpression that the president is the onlybeneficiary of the NRO. Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) President NawazSharif and the Punjab chief minister alsocame to the country after a political agree-

ment. Why has the PML-N president notissued a contempt notice for pressuringcourts?”

Haider said Swiss Attorney GeneralDaniel Zappeli has already clarified thatthe Swiss courts cannot reopen casesagainst President Zardari as he enjoys im-munity as per the Pakistan’s constitution.

“It is not only the Pakistani law, butthe international law also provides immu-nity to President Zardari like it does to thepresidents of France and Sudan,” headded.

A National Accountability Court(NAB) acquitted the only arrested man inthe Cotecna reference case and it has de-cided that the court could not initiate ac-tion as President Zardari, also accused inthe case, as he enjoy immunity under theconstitution, Haider pointed out.

“The PPP Sindh would review optionsto call a general body meeting after itscore committee meeting in Islamabad,”he added.

PPP acting Information SecretaryWaqar Mehdi claimed that all cases

against President Zardari have beenproven to be fabricated.

“If we can face jails, then we can alsoface courts during our rule,” he said. Sai-fur Rehman, the former NAB chief,sought forgiveness from PresidentZardari for hatching a conspiracy againsthim on the directives of anti-PPP forces,”he added.

“We are monitoring the situationclosely and would decide the future strat-egy after the PPP core committee meetingin Islamabad.”

Don’t ignore NrO’s positive aspects: Taj haider

It is not the sole responsibility

of the provincial health

department, and we need

multidimensional approach with help from

different departments, including social

welfare and agriculture, to end this

important issue

Dr SaLMa KauSarSinDH nutrition CeLL Manager

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:32 AM Page 7

SHAzIA MARRI

SINDH’S greatest Sufi poet andmystic, Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittaiwas born in 1689 to a well-respectedfamily of the province. Bhittai was neverattracted to comfort and rejected the

luxuries of life to search for true spirituality.Spending most of his life in deep solitary

meditation, the questions that burned through hismind revolved around man’s purpose for being onearth and his relationship with his creator.

It was through his poetry that Bhittaipreached the beliefs of tolerance, love and con-quering tyranny and oppression.

Tolerance is what makes a man human. Man,who has many desires, moods and ambitions, isconstantly struggling to get ahead of the rest or toachieve his desired objectives.

It seems that everyone is in some kind of arace and we are competing against one anotherand many a times, this competition gets severebecause we tend to overlook others’ feelings oreven attempt to hurt others.

Islam, being a way of life, shows us how tolead our lives on a day to day basis… how to be-have with different relations, how to performgood deeds, how to talk, how to discipline our-selves and so much more.

It is a known fact that God loves those wholove his beings. Indeed, why not? Don’t we lovethose who show love towards our children? Butsadly, everything falls apart when it comes to thatrace! People are losing faith in one another, trustbeing broken more regularly than ever! A brotherdoesn’t trust his brother! Husband doesn’t havefaith in his wife! One relation betraying anotheris becoming a common practice. Back-biting,which is strictly prohibited in Islam, is no big dealfor anyone anymore.

One looks for an opportunity at all times tomalign the other. Rules are broken with pride,there is no patience to stand at a traffic signal justfor a few seconds and throwing garbage and spit-ting paan on roads and streets is common now!Look at what we have done to our historical build-ings and heritage sites!

You must be wondering why did I shift fromthe topic of Bhittai and ended up here. Well yousee this is what we need to understand and valuebecause love and tolerance, as propagated byBhittai, is what we need today to fix our society.

We need tolerance to co-exist and we needlove to care for all beings created by God, thusmaking the Almighty happy.

Bhittai wrote poetry on the women of Sindh,admiring their courage and loyalty. Women, whogive birth to life, need to be respected and appre-ciated for the struggle they go through in a worldwhere fathers, brothers and sons dominate the so-ciety.

Wise women suffer because their wisdom be-comes a nuisance for them. Bhittai’s mesmerisingpoetry pays tribute to women and their variousabilities.

Bhittai’s message was not limited to one re-gion. His philosophy of love and tolerance had noboundaries and he preached about greater har-mony.

Today, when countries are aggressively con-fronting one another, conspiracy theories are pop-ping up every single second, terrorists areworking on their evil plans, territories are becom-ing more precious than human life and blood of

innocent people and children is being shed in dif-ferent wars, we need the message of Bhittai tospread! We need to end these wars, stop the con-spiracy game, stop the shedding of precious bloodand this is what Bhittai’s philosophy of greaterharmony is all about. It is the best resolution ofall conflicts. Bhittai undoubtedly thought muchahead of his time and that is why he devoted hislife to the greatest cause of spreading love and tol-erance amongst all.

Bhittai’s poems, collected and compiled, havesurvived generations and inspired million acrossborders and faiths. His teachings of humanity,piety, respect and emancipation of women, toler-ance between faiths and moral courage continueto be our guiding light.

Sindh is known for its great Sufi saints and wetake pride in their message of love and peace. Sha-heed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, who often visitedthe shrines of the Sufi saints in Sindh, understoodhow important it was to spread this message ofpeace and so she initiated the process of reconcil-iation.

Her vision of reconciling for greater peace inthe country and region is a mission for us todayand we continue to move in that direction underthe leadership of President Asif Ali Zardari, whotoo forgave those who never forgave him.

They punished him for being on the rightpath, they tortured him to break his silence but hestruggled with dignity. The Pakistan People’sParty continues to promote peace through recon-ciliation.

Today we need to remind ourselves of Bhit-tai’s message of love and tolerance and peacefulco-existence. We need to forget our differencesand learn to respect each other’s point of view. Weneed to end disputes and conflicts and value thelittle things in life. We need to make peace withinand outside, reconcile and work together forgreater peace and harmony. We need to reallywork hard to make our world the better place tolive in! Long live Bhittai…

The writer is Sindh information and electricpower minister.

karachiPakistaN today

weaTheR UPDaTeS

Low

27°CClear skieshigh

15°C 26%humidity

ThURSDay FRIDay SaTURDay28°C I 16°C 28°C I 16°C 28°C I 17°C

PRayeR TIMINgS

Starting time in karachi

Fajr Sunrise Zuhr asr Maghrib Isha

5:58 7:18 12:40 3:41 6:01 7:22

CITy DIReCTORy

POLICe 15

BOMB DISPOSaL 15, 99212667

FIRe BRIgaDe 16, 99215007, 99215008

eDhI 115, 32310066-2310077

khIDMaT-e-khaLq FOUNDaTION 36333811

ReD CReSCeNT 35833973

gOVeRNOR’S hOUSe 136

ChIeF MINISTeR’S hOUSe 99202051

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hOSPITaLS

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IVS 35861039-40

08wednesday, 11 January, 2012

tHe SKY StiLL LingerS

Art exhibition ‘The Sky Still Lingers’until January 15 at the PhotospaceGallery. Call 0300-8242197 formore information.

ARt EXHIBItIONUNtIL JANUARY 15VENUE: PHOtOSPACE gALLERY

SaeeD aKHtar

Saeed Akhtar’s exhibition ofcharcoal drawings until January 14at the ArtScene Gallery. Call35843961 for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIONUNtIL JANUARY 14VENUE: ARtSCENE gALLERY

faraZeH SYeD

Farazeh Syed’s art exhibitionfrom January 13 to 20 at theUnicorn Gallery. Call 35831220for more information.

ARt EXHIBItIONStARtS JANUARY 13 At 05:00 PMVENUE: UNICORN gALLERY

We need to stop competing againsteach other and follow Bhittai

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:32 AM Page 8

09wednesday, 11 January, 2012

News

LAHOREiMran aDnan

THe federal government hasgiven approval for reconsti-tution of the board of direc-tors (BoDs) of PakistanRailways.

To revamp the Pakistan Railways,the new board would largely be domi-nated by members from the private sec-tor, Pakistan Today learnt on Tuesday.

Official documents made available toPakistan Today show that the new BODwill include eleven professionals from theprivate sectors, three members from thepublic sector and two ex-officio officers.

The proposed list of names for therailways BOD shows that the govern-ment is considering the names of indus-trialist Mian Azizur Rehman, notedeconomic professor Dr Akmal Hussain,Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL)former general manager engineer Saee-duz Zaman, former banker AhmedAlman Aslam, LUMS professor DrImran Ali, agriculturist Qaiser Zulfiqar,WAPDA Chairman Shakeel Durrani, ad-vocate Malik Mushtaq Ahmed, PakistanRailways former general managers Au-rangzeb Khan and Iqbal Samad Khanand the member Privatisation Commis-sion Board.

Similarly, federal minister for rail-

ways or railways chairman, member(nominee of Ministry of Railways) andrepresentative from the Cabinet Com-mittee on Restructuring (CCOR) wouldrepresent the public sector.

Whereas, the Pakistan Railwayschief executive officer (CeO) or memberand chief financial officer (CFO), mem-ber finance (Auditor General Depart-ment) would be included as ex-officio.

According to the railways’ existingrules, the board consists of a chairmanand members who are appointed by thefederal government and includes rail-ways division secretary (chairman of theboard), communication division secre-tary, finance division secretary, planning

and development division secretary,Pakistan Railways general manager op-erations and general manager manufac-turing and services and RailwaysDivision member finance as ex-officio.

It also includes three members fromthe private sector, which are nominatedby the federal government.

The federal cabinet in its meetingheld in March 2010 considered a sum-mary submitted by the Finance Divisionon “Approval of the Decision of CabinetCommittee on Restructuring (CCOR) ofPublic Sector enterprises (PSes)” andapproved the proposed roadmap for re-organisation of the boards of directors ofthe identified PSes.

Federal government approvesreconstitution of Railways BoD

PARISafP

The death of Osama bin Laden last yearseverely damaged Al-Qaeda’s financesand left the shadowy network strug-gling to survive in the mountains ofPakistan and Afghanistan, analysts say.

Deprived of its historic leader,whose legendary name drew in gener-ous contributions from rich families inthe Gulf, Al-Qaeda’s money troubleshave forced it to scale down its activi-ties, they said.

“When Osama was alive, Al-Qaedahad more money,” said a senior secu-rity official in in the northwestern Pak-istan city of Peshawar.

“Before Osama’s death, we receivedreports showing disputes betweenOsama and Ayman Al-Zawahiri aboutmoney. The money was coming fromOsama, and Zawahiri was the opera-tional head,” he said.

Zawahiri was bin Laden’s deputywho took over after his Saudi boss, whowas believed responsible for the Sep-tember 11, 2001 attacks on the UnitedStates, was shot dead in May by UScommandos in Pakistan after a 10-yearmanhunt.

Zawahiri has neither the stature,the influence nor the networks to col-lect funds from Gulf donors and the or-ganisation’s finances quickly began todwindle after the death, analysts said.

“He is an egyptian, and that playsa major part,” said Riad Kahwaji of theInstitute for Near east and Gulf mili-tary analysis (INeGMA).

“He still has to prove himself as acapable leader for the cause. We have alot of reports that show that he is stillbeing challenged by many of otherprominent Qaeda members,” he said.

“In the Gulf, family connections,tribal connections do matter a lot. Thedeath of bin Laden had a major impact

on the finances of Al-Qaeda,” said Kah-waji.

Bin Laden first began touring theGulf to collect funds back in the 1980swhen he was taking part in the jihadagainst the Soviet occupation ofAfghanistan. He was received as a heroduring these tours.

A Pakistani Taliban source inter-viewed by AFP in Karachi said the Gulfdonors are still financing anti-Ameri-can jihad in the region but that theAfghan Taliban were now favouredabove Al-Qaeda. Another Talibansource in Peshawar said that “Al-Qaedastill has money, but they focus nowmore on Afghanistan.

“Before they were giving money toTTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan), butnow they’re only giving them somesmall money to survive,” he said.

Volunteer fighters returning fromPakistan’s northwestern tribal belthave told of under-manned Al-Qaeda

cells that are lacking in focus, short ofcash and terrified of attacks by USdrones. “They have been seriously de-pleted, not just by financial problemsbut also by drone strikes and lack ofmorale generally and lack of leader-ship,” said Richard Barrett of the Al-Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team of theUnited Nations. “Al-Qaeda has been sodiscredited by its irrelevance to all thechanges in the Arab world that it’s nolonger attractive as a recipient of fundsfor donors,” said Barrett, a former headof counter-terrorism at Britain’s MI6intelligence agency.

Kahwaji added: “People who usedto support it now see that you can havean Islamic movement able to sendelected members into parliament orgovernment. “They don’t need anymore to support a rogue group livingthousands of miles away from them tohelp them change things in their re-spective countries.”

Bin Laden death hits al Qaeda hard

Pakistan writesto UN to registercomplaint overSir Creek

NEW YORKonLine

Pakistan has complained to UN chief BanKi-moon that the geographical coordinatesof the Sir Creek estuary notified by Indiawere “inconsistent” with the internationallaw and “impinge” upon Islamabad’sterritorial limits in the disputed area,Indian media reported on Tuesday. Thecomplaint was made in a letter fromPakistan’s mission to the UN which hasbeen posted on the UN website. It was inresponse to India’s notifications specifyingits geographical coordinates and boundaryclaims with regards to Sir Creek, whichwere placed on the website of the UNDivision for Ocean Affairs and the Law ofthe Sea in May and November 2009. Theletter said India’s “base points impingeupon Pakistan’s territorial limits in the SirCreek area and encroach upon itsterritorial waters, which are within itssovereign jurisdiction. This encroachmentby India in Pakistan’s limits is a graveviolation of international principles”. Itsaid Pakistan did “not recognise thebaseline system promulgated” by India”.“While the government of Pakistanreserves its right to seek suitable revision ofthis notification, any claim India makes onthe basis of Indian notification to extend itssovereignty and jurisdiction on Pakistaniwaters or extend its internal waters,territorial sea, exclusive economic Zoneand Continental Shelf is, therefore, notacceptable to Pakistan,” the letter added.

No provision inconstitution tocreate newprovinces: aNP

PESHAWARStaff rePort

Despite the enactment of the 18th and 19thamendment; there is no provision in theconstitution to create new provinces,Awami National Party (ANP) senior vicepresident and parliamentary leader inSenate Haji Muhammad Adeel said onTuesday. He said that neither Article-239(4) nor provincial assemblies nor theparliament could create new provinces. Hesaid even securing 100 percent votes anda resolution cannot create new provinces.He said Article 1 of the constitutionmentioned the provinces and areas thatfall in the country or may be added to it.He said the change would require drasticchanges in the constitution and dozens ofarticles will need to be reframed. He saidthe former Mohajir Qaumi Mahaz (MQM)was trying to create a rift between tribalPakthuns and settled Pakthuns by raisingthe Hazara card.

army plans pompousdemolition of binLaden’s home

ISLAMABADinP

The house where Osama bin Laden was shotdead by US Navy Seals is set to be flattenedby rocket-propelled grenades and thenbulldozed. Military chiefs in Pakistan plan aspectacular blitz in front of TV cameras toprevent the walled complex becoming ashrine, UK newspaper The Sun reportedTuesday. Interior Minister Rehman Maliksaid Monday: “We will hit it like an enemyfort. But first we must erase everythingrelated to bin Laden from our country.”Pakistan has been stung by claims it turneda blind eye to the hideout in Abbottabad, 30miles from capital Islamabad. Thedemolition will take place next month. TheISPR spokesman Major General AtharAbbas said US and european officials willbe invited. He said, “It will be a big event.”

MuZaffarabaD: Schoolchildren walk through a snow-covered road in Pir Chanasi. ONLiNe

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:32 AM Page 9

10wednesday, 11 January, 2012

News

LAHORESaLaHuDin SafDar

Ateam of American doctors wastaken on board on Monday bythe Microsoft Corporation forthe treatment of the world’syoungest Microsoft Certified

Professional (MCP) Arfa Kareem while herdisease remained a mystery to medical ex-perts.

The family of the IT prodigy was alsocontacted by Microsoft owner Bill Gates’aide to express the Gates’ wishes for Arfa’shealth. Arfa, who was called “a new face ofPakistan in the world”, is still under inten-sive care after she suffered from an epilep-tic seizure and cardiac arrest three weeksago.

Arfa’s uncle, Tariq Randhawa, whiletalking to Pakistan Today denied that BillGates had contacted the family but said aMicrosoft representative had conveyed hiswishes for Arfa’s early recovery and in-formed the family that a panel of four doc-tors had been employed by Microsoft forconsultations on Arfa’s mysterious disease.

The foreign doctors contacted Arfa’sPakistani doctors and obtained her med-ical records and details about her illnessover the internet.

Randhawa added that doctors from allover Pakistan and abroad were monitoringArfa’s condition. He stated that the girl wasstill on life-support but her brain hadshown signs of improvement and that thedoctors were optimistic about her condi-tion. He said the foreign doctors were alsocontent about the medical facilities beingprovided to the child in Pakistan.

Arfa’s doctors had said earlier therewere not enough facilities available in thecountry to shift the critical patient to an-other hospital.

However, her uncle told PakistanToday that the doctors were not in favourof shifting the patient elsewhere until hercondition became stable. He added thatthe family was satisfied with the medicalcare provided to Arfa.

Arfa’s medical records, including scansof her brain were also mailed to renownedmedical experts in Australia and othercountries.

According to the child’s family, shesuffered from a seizure on December 22which was followed by a cardiac arrest thataffected the blood supply to the brain, lim-iting its efficiency. Doctors have not yetbeen able to identify the cause of herseizure.

Arfa was immediately taken to the La-hore CMH where she was admitted in theintensive care unit and put on a ventilator.

The doctors at CMH were hopelessabout the girl’s recovery before the re-sponse from her brain was recorded.

Arfa’s father Col (retd) Amjad Kareemsaid her brain is now showing continuousactivity and she has started to move herhands and feet.

Arfa, now 16 is a student of A-levels inLahore. She won the title of the youngestMicrosoft Certified Professional at the ageof 9 in 2004. She was also invited by BillGates to visit the Microsoft Corporation’sheadquarters in the US.

Piloting a plane at the age of 10 wasalso proof of Arfa’s astonishing skills.

She also received the President’sAward for the Pride of Performance at thesame age and the Fatimah Jinnah GoldMedal from the government in 2005.

She was awarded the Salaam PakistanYouth Award and became a brand ambas-sador for PTCL in 2010. Arfa’s family hasasked the nation to pray for the recovery ofthe extraordinary girl.

PPP MNa azeemDaultana killed inroad accident

VEHARIonLine

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA,Mian Azeem Khan Daultana, was killedin a road accident, his family said onTuesday. Daultana was on his way toVehari when his car ran off the roadand flipped over on Kot Wali Bridgenear Luddan. His driver died on thespot, while, Daultana succumbed to hisinjuries while he was being rushed tothe hospital. Daultana was a nephew toPakistan Muslim League-N leaderTehmina Daultana. He was alsoparliamentary secretary for information& broadcasting. According to sources inthe family, he was due to get married intwo weeks. President Asif Ali Zardari,Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani,Information Minister Dr Firdous AshiqAwan and other ministers andpoliticians condoled with the family.

address SSPemployees issue,Iftikhar tells govt

PESHAWARStaff rePort

The federal government must resolve theissue of the absorption of the Soil Survey ofPakistan (SSP) employees who have beendeprived of their salaries for the last fewmonths at the earliest, KhyberPakhtunkhwa (KP) Minister forInformation and Cabinet Committee onAbsorption of Federal employeesChairman, Mian Iftikhar Hussain said onTuesday. He made the demand whilechairing a meeting of the CabinetCommittee on Absorption of Federalemployees transferred to province under18th Constitutional Amendment atPeshawar. The meeting was also attendedby establishment Secretary Aarifeen Khan,Population Welfare Secretary Ahmad HanifOrakzai and authorities concerned ofdevolved departments.

NEW DELHIafP

British author Salman Rushdie has dismissed demands by aninfluential Islamic seminary in India that he should be bannedfrom entering the country to attend a literature festival laterthis month.

Rushdie, who was threatened with death in a “fatwa” orderfrom Iran over his 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses”, is due tospeak in the city of Jaipur alongside fellow writers such as Li-onel Shriver and Richard Dawkins.

The Darululoom Deoband seminary, one of the world’smost important Islamic universities, is known for its conserva-tive teachings thought to have shaped the views of some radicalIslamist groups such as the Taliban.

Maulana Qasim Nomani, a seminary official, called forIndia to cancel Rushdie’s visa, saying that “the man whose blas-phemous writings have hurt the sentiments of Muslims all overthe world must not be allowed to set foot on Indian soil.”

Rushdie — who was born in Mumbai in 1947 — respondedlate on Monday by pointing out on Twitter that he did not needa visa to visit India.

The novelist spent a decade in hiding after Iranian spiritualleader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989calling for his death for alleged blasphemy against Islam in “TheSatanic Verses”.

The Times of India said on Tuesday that Rushdie had vis-ited India dozens of times over the last 20 years and it accusedthe seminary of trying to link the issue to state elections in UttarPradesh that begin on February 8.

“Whenever Rushdie has come here, we have always con-

demned it,” Maulana Abdul Khaliq, seminary deputy vice chan-cellor, said. “People who admire him can go and find himabroad.”

Organisers of the Jaipur festival said Rushdie had attendedliterary events in India without incident in recent years, andwas still scheduled to speak on January 20 and 21.

“In plural societies such as ours, it is imperative that wecontinue to allow avenues for unfettered literary expression,”they said in a statement.

SHAzIA MARRI

Sindh’s greatest Sufi poet and mysticHazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai was bornin 1689 into a well-respected family ofSindh. He was never attracted to comfort,rejected the luxuries of family and home tospend his life searching for true spiritual-ity and connection to God. Spending mostof his life in deep solitary meditation, thequestions that burned through his mindrevolved around man’s purpose for beingon earth, and his relationship with his Cre-ator. It was through his poetry that hepreached to his disciples beliefs of toler-ance and love, conquering tyranny and op-pression.

Love and tolerance as propagated byShah Abdul Latif Bhitai is what we needtoday to fix our society. We need the toler-ance to co-exist and we need the love toshow care to all beings created by God.

Bhitai wrote poetry on the women ofSindh, admiring their courage and loyalty.He says women, who give birth to life,need to be respected and appreciated forall the struggle they go through in a world

where fathers, brothers and sons dominatesociety. Wise women suffer because theyare wise and being wise becomes a nui-sance for them, says Bhitai’s mesmerisingpoetry, which pays tribute to women andtheir various abilities.

Shah Latif’s message was not limitedto one region, his philosophy of love andtolerance had no boundaries and hepreached about greater harmony. Todaywhen countries are aggressively con-fronting one another, conspiracy theoriespopping up every single second, terroristsworking on their evil plans, territories be-coming more precious than human life,blood of innocent people and childrenbeing shed in wars, we need the messageof Bhitai to spread, We need to end thesewars, stop the conspiracy game, stop theshedding of precious blood and this iswhat Shah Latif’s philosophy of greaterharmony is all about, the best resolutionof all conflicts.

(The writer is Provincial Minister forInformation and Electric Power,Government of Sindh)

Doctors trying their best to savePakistani child prodigyg Family appeals for prayers for her health

Rushdie dismisses call for ban on India entry Peace and tolerance: The message

of shah Abdul Latif Bhitai

SuKKur: Children stand in queue to fill their vessels with clean drinking water from a roadside tap at Station road. iNP

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:33 AM Page 10

Editor’s mail 11wednesday, 11 January, 2012

Presidential immunityThese days the burning question of

President’s immunity is very much thetopic of national attention. The residentclaims immunity for all past and presentdeeds while the Apex Court has observedthat immunity has to be claimed fromthe court. As a result the nation is in alogjam over the critical issue. The Presi-dent has vowed that the PM would notissue a letter to Swiss courts to open thecase of his bank accounts of millions ofdollars as required by the Apex Court.

The above imbroglio could best beresolved by reverting to pristine Islamichistory where even the Holy Prophet(PBUH) offered himself to be account-able to a citizen and the caliphs pre-sented themselves in the court for beingaccountable.

Article 25(1) of the Constitution alsostates that all citizens are equal beforelaw and have equal protection of lawwhich surmounts all other provisions asthe President is also a citizen of Pakistanand could offer himself for being ac-countable for his deeds.

DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTILahore

a triple distinctionPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani

should be entitled to a triple crown: Crown I: Prime Minister Gilani has

made more statements than the numberof days he has been in office.

Crown II: Prime Minister Gilani hasmade more statements than all the primeministers and presidents of Pakistan.

Crown III: Prime Minister Gilani hasmade more statements in office than allthe prime ministers of the British Com-monwealth of Nations combined.

By virtue of these distinctions, PrimeMinister Gilani should be entitled to aplace in the Guinness Book of SuperRecords. Ninety percent of Prime Minis-ter Gilani’s statements are self-contradic-tory or frivolous. Five percent areretractions or flip-flopping and the restmay make me sense. (This is said in jest.I assure the Hon. Prime Minister of mydeep respect.)

BASHIR A MALIKLahore

Nur khan as I saw himLate Air Marshal Nur Khan has been

profoundly complimented for his exem-plary leadership role as chief of the Pak-istan Air Force, and later twice at thehelm of the PIA.

Nur Khan kept himself away frompublic life for many years. His state-ments seldom appeared in newspapers.Also, his admirers did not arrange anysignificant public event to acknowledgehis achievements and personality.

Shouldn't our civil society considerappreciating and recognising the roleplayed by people like Nur Khan? Should-n't we pay homage to such personalitiesin their lifetime rather than after theirdeath? This will enable those still hold-ing public positions to be emulated asrole models.

The wrongs, if any, should also bebrought to light in their lifetime to pro-vide them opportunity to offer clarifica-tions as a human is always prone tomistakes. I had an opportunity of ob-serving Nur Khan who once handled agroup of students in Nawabshah whenhe was Governor West Pakistan wayback in 1969. I was a college studentthen. While walking to the college, I sawa small group of students agitating overthe transfer of the headmaster of the dis-trict council high school, Nawabshah. Hehad held that position for a very longtime.

The students were determined to ap-proach the Governor. en route spottingthe crowd Nur Khan stopped the motor-cade and inquired about the problem.After getting the details he directed thethen deputy commissioner to review thetransfer order which was immediatelycomplied with.

Later entering practical life I realisedhow much our system of governance iscentralised even in present times. Thelocal administration’s decision was over-turned within no time, leaving them inutter embarrassment.

S BUKHARIKarachi

gender discriminationWhen a boy is born in most develop-

ing countries, friends and relatives ex-claim congratulations. A son meansinsurance. He will inherit his father'sproperty and get a job to help supportthe family. When a girl is born, the reac-tion is very different. Some women weepwhen they find out their baby is a girl be-cause, to them, a daughter is just anotherexpense.

Discrimination against girls andwomen in the developing world is a dev-astating reality. It results in millions ofindividual tragedies, which add up to lostpotential for entire countries. Studiesshow there is a direct link between acountry's attitude towards women andits progress socially and economically.The status of women is central to thehealth of a society. If one part suffers, sodoes the whole.

SABEEN IMANLahore

a tribute to Shah abdul Latif BhittaiThe annual Urs of Hazrat Shah Abdul

Latif Bhittai, a magnanimous soul whoguided the humanity with his rare quali-ties of head and heart and who lovedeveryone as his own soul, is being cele-brated with usual fervour and solemnityin the famous town of Bhitt Shah, Hyder-abad division. One can witness variousactivities throughout the province where

all and sundry pay a glowing tribute tohim who is sociologist and philosopher ofrare breed. Shah sain is indeed an inspi-ration to every individual. Shah Latif isemotionally and spiritually nearer toeveryone.

Millions of people have been influ-enced by his life, mission and vision. Hisvision is peace, progress and happiness.

His writings bring sensitivity, sagacity,simplicity, creativity, hope and solace tothe lacerated hearts. However, in order topay tribute to him and advocate his mes-sage of humanity and humanitarian val-ues, I appeal to the President of Pakistanto direct the foreign ministry, the exter-nal publicity wing of ministry of informa-tion and broadcasting and also the

culture department to project and pro-mote his message of “peace and socialjustice”, “tolerance and toleration”, “har-mony and development” around theglobe. For this purpose his poetic works“Shah Jo Risalo” should be translated inall UN official languages at the earliest.

HASHIM ABROIslamabad

Sab se pehle PakistanThe man, who has initiated his politics under the civilian

clothes and who chants sab se pehle Pakistan, seems to be insome very hot waters as the details of his bank accounts has justbeen made public, which incidentally make him a billionaire indollar terms. His claims to lead the country would have no cred-

ibility if he is not going to undergo accountability of the highestorder, along with his trial for the crimes he committed againstthe national leaders.

SADIA KHANLahore

Send your letters to:Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, PakistanFax: +92-42-36298302E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters may be edited for length and clarity.It would be appreciated if letters were ad-dressed to Pakistan Today exclusively.

a positive changeIt is not too late. eminent Baloch

Sardar and politician Ataullah Mengalcame out with the blatant truth in his TVtalk on 8 January when he admitted thatit was questionable whether the youth ofBalochistan spearheading the so-called‘separatist’ movement are able to run theaffairs of government if the Balochistanprovince gets independence from Pak-istan.

The Sardar who was a month backpleading for independent Balochistan inyet another statement two weeks backsurprisingly enough went too far when hesaid: “Balochistan has rich resources andany other force could trap us into an-other quagmire.

We have no other solution, except tokeep the country intact.” Chief MinisterNawab Aslam Raisani followed the re-mark by saying “the world is eyeing onthe Gwadar Port and natural resources ofthe province, but we will not let the

province become part of any great game.”This is the most welcome statement

which is certainly a ray of hope for us asa nation. This change is visibly seen inthe veteran Baloch politician’s mind afterthe PML(N) president Nawaz Sharif vis-ited Sardar Mengal’s place where the lat-ter warned the nation about the enragedBaloch youth who are living in the moun-tains. Very few know about who is lead-ing those youth or whether theirmovement is under the BLA tag or BRAinsignia? It is for your readers’ informa-tion that Dr Aala Nazar is the leader whoseems to be working on some others’agenda. Dr Aala Nazar has very dubiousbackground. His MBBS degree is notprobably authenticated.

Besides the holding of nationalistpro-separatist leader Sanaullah Zehri’sPML(N) slot in Balochistan is a major de-velopment. The FC and military circlesare also pointing towards the mysteriousmovement involving the said to beBalochistan youth which is mostly in the

Brahwi-concentrated areas. This alsoseems likely that neither Sardar AtaullahMengal nor Mir Khuda Bukhsh Marihave any kind of control on those move-ment-youth and they are worried abouttheir actual motive of campaign, as thetraces of the hands behind are so far visi-bly clueless. The Centre as well as thepoliticians of all the provinces need to becognizant of the fact and they not onlyneed to read the writing on the wall butalso join hands together and take a jointstep towards saving the Balochistanprovince from being separated.

If Sardar Ataullah, Sanaullah Zehriand Sari Mari can be briefed about theactual situation and the conspiracies be-hind, why can’t a similar dialogueprocess, brain-storming sessions, aware-ness seminars and motivated media cam-paigns be initiated as immediately aspossible? Baloch people need to be un-derstood.

IMRAN JAMALIRojhan Jamali, Balochistan

The killing of 15 kidnappedFrontier Constabulary sol-diers in the frontier region

Tank last week by Tehreek-e-Tal-iban Pakistan is a great tragedy forthose unfortunate souls, their fam-ilies and the country.

What was the fault of thosebrave soldiers? Why did they, likethousands of others, sacrifice theirlives? Don’t they have parents tocry, wives to mourn and kids toweep? Those security personnelwho were butchered had human,social, economic and physical as-pects that could not be ignored.Apart from the economic realitiesrelated to the persons who havebeen killed, there are always wider

psychological aspects for the fam-ily members left behind, particu-larly their children who are leftorphan. The human and psycho-logical aspects cannot be alleviatedby any amount of financial com-pensation. But the bigger tragedyrelated to the issue is that despiteall these unmatchable sacrificesrendered by the soldiers, theAmericans are not ready to ac-knowledge Pakistan as the front-line state against war on terror.

Similarly, the killing of thoseFC soldiers is a clear signal foreverybody that the war on terror isnot yet over. The danger andthreat to the lives and property ofboth civilian and security forces re-mains a challenge. Anti-state ornon-state actors may hit the coun-try whenever or wherever they geta chance; however, tribal regionsbeing close to the war theatre ofAfghanistan are more exposed toviolence and brutalities. The rea-son is obvious as the terrorists,whatever groups they may belongto find a tangible support fromacross the border but the US and

the Afghan governments are notwilling to take responsibility ex-cept blaming Pakistan for all evils.Majority in the US and the Westacknowledges the fact that a failedUS Afghan policy is the main causeof all violence and instability inAfghanistan as well as in the re-gion.

Pakistan is also a victim ofAmerica’s failed military approachon war on terror. The US generals’“Garrison Afghan Strategy” hasleft the whole region unstable andwe in Pakistan have paid a greatercost for it than any other nation inthe world. The US talk-fight-talkapproach could not restore peacein the region. even now nobody issure whether the US is seriousabout resolving the Afghanistanconflict through unconditionaltalks with all Afghans groups with-out discriminating them eithergood or bad. So, it won’t be diffi-cult at all to determine that thebrutal killing of FC soldiers has adirect link to the volatile situationof Afghanistan.

Give them whatever name you

want to – fundamentalists or ex-tremists or terrorists – all those el-ements who challenge the writ ofthe state are criminals. So, all theirviolent actions taken under what-ever ideology or circumstance can-not be endorsed or justified at anycost. Those who do not respect thecountry’s laws and its institutionsmust be dealt with an iron hand.

Today, there are reports of be-hind the scene contacts and nego-tiations at different levels betweenthe state functionaries and the Tal-iban operating in various agenciesof FATA. There are reports that theTaliban have agreed to halt theirviolent actions against the securityforces in the tribal belt and furthermodalities are being worked outfor a future peace deal. As a matterof principle, when there are dealsthey are based on give and take. Asthe government has been denyingmaking any deal or agreement,therefore, nobody is in a positionto translate the fundamentals ofthe engagements.

The peace talk initiative is awelcome step. War could be one of

the options of resolving conflict ordispute but is not the solution. Wecan see in the history that all themajor conflicts were ultimately re-solved through peaceful negotia-tions. However, fundamentals ofany peace deal should have a clearguarantee that the two parties willrespect the agreements and willnot resort to violence. Talibanmust ensure that; 1, they will notchallenge the writ of state; 2, theywill not put any restriction on themovement of security forces in anypart of the tribal areas; 3, they willnot attack security personnel andcivilians; 4, they will not damageor destroy vital installations, pub-lic and private properties, schoolsand hospitals etc; 5, they will notintimidate government officialsperforming their official duties; 6,they will not block any communi-cation system including roadswithin the tribal areas; 7, they willhelp security forces and law en-forcement agencies to arrest any-one involved in any criminalactivity in the FATA region; 8, therich and the business community

will not be forced to pay anymoney in the shape of funds forthe organisations etc; and 9, thecross-border legal bilateral tradebetween Pakistan and Afghanistanwould not be disrupted. If thesefundamental conditions are notfulfilled then the whole concept ofpeace would be nothing else but ajoke.

There is another angle to suchkillings and attacks on the securityforces. There is an ample possibil-ity that those internal and externalforces, that do not want a peacedeal between the government andthe Taliban in FATA, may play adirty game to sabotage the wholeprocess. So, the two sides must re-main vigilant and should also haveconfidence and trust in each otherand the peace process. However,dictating the terms through vio-lence will bring no peace and nosolution.

The writer hosts a primetimetalk show on a TV channel andcan be contacted via email: wa-heed.h35@gmail.com

Peace talks versus violence

By Waheed Hussain

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comment12wednesday, 11 January, 2012

Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

… it continues

Our Faustian bargain

The warden is away and the inmates are rulingthe roost. In the aftermath of the publicdeclaration of interest by senior figures in theUS government of a settlement with the Taliban

in Afghanistan, there appears to be a wait-and-holdperiod in the offensive against the scourge withinPakistan. Subsequently, the militants have been on anincessant rampage over the course of a week, the latestbeing the bomb blast in the Khyber Agency yesterday,which has yielded a casualty count of 27 people, withmany more injured. They have also, it is presumed, havehad time to regroup following the easing up of the pincermovement of military action and drone strikes againstthem.

It is not known where the loss of innocent livesfigures in the grand calculus of our securityestablishment. Since the beginning of the war againstterror, which was way overdue and should, ideally, nothave been at prodding of the US, the Pakistani securitysetup has pursued a dual policy of strikes andappeasement. This has had disastrous consequences. Inthe Waziristans, for instance, it has yielded the completeannihilation of the once large number of anti-Talibanlashkars. In Swat, in another instance, the militants onlycontrolled the Matta sub-district when the army wascalled in for action by the provincial government; by thetime the government was all but forced into a peacedeal, the militants were controlling the whole of thedistrict!

It’s like the mental puzzle game of trying to get thefox, the hen and the sack of grain across the river andour home-grown Clausewitzes are insisting on gettingthe sack of grain (or strategic depth, if you will) acrossfirst. What happens to the hen, our great unwashed, issomething they cannot be bothered with.

The operation was successful, many a myopic doctorhas claimed, but the patient died a painful death. Whatleverage in a post-American Afghanistan do we needthat is worth letting the militants tear asunder our verysocial and national fabric?

In the mood for confrontation?

The verdict

The five member Supreme Court bench hasdrawn conclusions which are rife with highlyserious implications for the government andthe system. Among other things, the court has

concluded that prima facie the prime minister hasviolated his oath while both the president and PM havepreferred party loyalty over loyalty to the state and canbe held unfit to hold their offices. The charges can havegrievous consequences for the government while thesecould also lead to senior leaders’ disqualification fromholding public office over long terms. Acting withjudicial restraint, the court has however given anopportunity to the government to defend itself beforethe larger bench on January 16.

The decision comes in the wake of a serious standoffbetween the government and the military establishment.Prime Minister Gilani again reiterated the charge thatthe COAS and DG ISI had violated the rules of businesswhile submitting statements before the memocommission. Meanwhile, sections of the opposition arein full cry demanding fresh elections a year ahead of thecompletion of the government’s tenure. The knives areout.

Instead of foiling the alleged conspiracies, the PPP,in an act of sheer recklessness, has simultaneously takenon both the army and the SC. It is taking aconfrontationist attitude at a time when its standing inthe general public has considerably gone down onaccount of it abysmal performance. even in Sindh, thestronghold of the party, the common man is unhappybecause of the government’s failure to reach out to therain-cum-flood affected people and over three year longspree of target killings in Karachi. Disregarding sanervoices in the party, the PPP leadership has taken thestand that it would not agree to the opening of the Swisscases. It has also said it would only accept the findings ofthe parliamentary committee and not those of the memocommission. A continuation of the policy wouldstrengthen its opponents’ view that the party hasdecided to take the way that leads to martyrdom becauseit suits the party politically.

No country for elected men?

National security is integral to anystate system. Internal and exter-nal dimensions of national secu-rity are assigned an importantplace in resource allocation and

policy making. However, if the considerationsof national security dominate all other con-cerns and responsibilities of the state, the lat-ter becomes a lopsided entity. Human andsocietal needs are neglected and the politicalprocess becomes distorted. This is more so forstates that are in the process of installing andconsolidating the democratic politicalprocess. Democracy and societal developmentare stifled if for one reason or another na-tional security becomes the dominant consid-eration. This benefits non-elected institutionsand gives an undue advantage to the securityestablishment.

The memo is the latest example how theissue of national security is being used tostrengthen non-elected state institutions andchallenge whatever effort has been made to

rehabilitate the political and so-cietal processes.

The main argument is thatthe contents of the memo havethreatened not only national se-curity but also undermined na-tional interest and nationalhonour and that the SupremeCourt must identify the culpritwho has committed such“crimes” against the state. TheSupreme Court has entertainedseveral petitions on this matter.Though the petition by thePML(N) leadership has notmentioned any name, othershave not been so discreet. Someperson based in Canada hassent a letter to the Chief Justiceon the memo which has alsobeen turned into a petition. Thisletter is clear as to who is thetarget. He has also offered tobear the cost of his petition. It isknown to all that these petitionsare part of the on-going effortsto somehow dislodge theelected government, and if pos-sible, get President Zardari re-moved for being part of someplan to undermine national se-curity and honour.

The opposition parties do not have suffi-cient votes in the National Assembly to dis-lodge the PPP-led federal governmentthrough a vote-of-no-confidence. This meansthat the opposition cannot remove the presi-dent by impeachment that requires two-thirdsvotes in both houses of the parliament. Thenon-availability of these options has led theopposition, especially the PML(N), to talk ofirrelevance of the parliament and seek theirobjectives through other means – street agi-tation to paralyse the government and re-course to the superior judiciary to seekdisqualification of the president or some keyofficials of the federal government, if not theremoval of the whole government. The oppo-sition parties and anti-PPP activists are view-ing the superior judiciary as forum to pursuetheir partisan agenda against the PPP-led fed-eral government and the president.

This is not the first time that national se-curity and national interest have been em-ployed to build pressures on elected civilianinstitutions and processes. Right after the at-tainment of independence, the initial securityand survival pressures turned Pakistan into asecurity state that assigned the highest prior-ity to external defence against India andlinked the survival of the state with a strongand assertive military.

Pakistan’s foreign policy was geared toserve the security needs that led Pakistan tojoin the US sponsored alliance system inorder to obtain new weapons and economicassistance from the United States. The imme-diate security needs were met adequately butthis entangled Pakistan in the Cold War thathad a long term negative impact on Pakistan.

The overemphasis on external securityadversely affected the prospects of democracyand weakened the civilian institutions andprocesses. Democracy and participatory gov-ernance was never a priority except in rheto-ric. This led to the ascendancy of the militaryin Pakistan which began to dominate manypolicy areas long before it directly assumedpower in October 1958.

The security-oriented mindset becamethe dominant worldview of the Pakistani stateand a major part of the society. This mindsetlooked at the participatory demands with a lotof suspicion. The demands for provincialrights and autonomy were described as anti-national. The political, economic and culturaldemands from east Pakistan were oftenviewed by the dominant power elite and themilitary as divisive and a challenge to Pak-istan’s solidarity and unity.

Four periods of military rule ingrained thesecurity dominated thought process in the so-ciety that any talk of reconciliation with India

or a demand for reducing defence spendingwas viewed as unpatriotic and dangerous.

Traditional national security paradigmwas invoked by the Pakistan military for deal-ing with the Kerry-Lugar-Berman Bill in Sep-tember-October 2009. The Pakistan militarytop brass denounced the bill because they feltthat some of provisions were anti-military.The civilian government came under pressurenot only from the military but also from thecivilian opposition that got encouraged by themilitary’s disposition and supported the mil-itary’s position.

Now, in 2011-12, the army/ISI is using thememo issue to build pressure on the civiliangovernment by describing the memo as a na-tional security concern. Such a public postureby the military establishment is another at-tempt to discredit the civilian institutions andprocesses without staging a coup.

This position is being supported by themajor opposition groups that see the memoissue as yet another opportunity to get rid ofthe federal government and PresidentZardari. Islamic and militant groups have alsoput their weight in favour of the military byholding the Defence of Pakistan conferences,targeting the federal government and the US.In other words, the military/intelligence es-tablishment, right-wing Islamist politicalgroups and militants are working concur-rently to discredit democratic institutions andprocesses. They have chosen the SupremeCourt, known for unprecedented judicial ac-tivism, to be the arena to tackle the electedparliament and elected executive. In a po-larised political environment, there will be po-litical fallout of whatever position theSupreme Court adopts on the memo.

Pakistan’s security is not so precariousthat it can be threatened by a non-official doc-ument. However, the political forces are usingthis document to get some extra politicalmileage and pressure the federal government.The military is using it to neutralise whateverrole the civilian government still has in secu-rity and military affairs without directly tak-ing over the government. The civilianopposition and Islamic and the political far-right are aligning with the military to pursuetheir own agendas against the federal govern-ment.

The memo episode may not dislodge thefederal government but the non-elected insti-tutions like the military and the judiciary havecaused enough tension in the political systemthat will hinder the consolidation of electedinstitutions and processes.

The writer is an independent political and defence analyst.

national security anddemocracy

By Dr Hasan Askari Rizvi

Twenty-five Pakistani sol-diers were bound, gagged,brutally tortured, and killed

in cold blood in two mass slayingsin a week. Their naked mutilatedbodies were dumped in ravines.Most of them were shot more than40 times each at point-blankrange.

Fifteen of them were abductedby 30 Taliban militants in a brazenpre-dawn attack on a guarded fortin Tank on December 23, in whichone soldier died and several othershad to retreat and hide. Their mu-tilated bodies were dumped in theShewa town of North Waziristanlast week. Taliban had promisedin a statement after the raid thatthey would “cut these soldiers intopieces” and send them to theircommanders as a New Year gift.

They have delivered on suchpromises in the past, and publiclyreleased video tapes of teenagersbeheading unarmed men like ani-mals.

Another 10 soldiers were ab-ducted from an outpost in Orakzaiin a late night attack on December21 by more than 100 Taliban mili-tants who killed 13 other troops inthe raid. Their bodies weredumped in a gorge and found onMonday. A Taliban spokesmansaid bodies of 10 troops were leftthere as part of an exchange ofcorpses that reporters said hadbeen negotiated by tribal elders.

An army that claims it is readyto take on the world’s only super-power to protect its soldiers is onits knees against the Taliban.Opinion makers and organisationswho had orchestrated the circusfollowing the tragic death of 24troops in an unintended NATO at-tack on Salala border post on No-vember 26 are simultaneouslytalking about negotiations withthe Taliban who have killed twiceas many troops and policemensince.

The 25 soldiers who were tor-tured, murdered and defiled bythe Taliban were given less than a10th of the air time given to thosewho died in the November 26 at-tack. There was no outrage in the

newspapers, no televised funeralsin flag-draped coffins, no emo-tionally charged reports on thefamilies they have left behind, andno TV anchors and self-pro-claimed guardians of Pakistan’shonour frothing at the mouth overthe brutality. There were noclaims of violation of Pakistan’ssovereignty and no demands todefend the country and its army’sghairat.

Our troops who lay their livesto protect us are to be honouredand mourned only when it suitsthe agenda of those in charge. Ourterritorial sovereignty is violatedand our national honour at stakeonly when our invisible govern-ment wants to arm-twist the USinto giving us more aid andweapons and agreeing with ourplans for the future of this region.

The Taliban, who are thelynchpin of those plans, are not tobe fought, resisted or even ques-tioned. Our national narrative isvery flexible in dealing with them.When they kill us, they are fundedby the US. When they kill Ameri-cans, they are soldiers of Islam.This is “the power of holding twocontradictory beliefs in one's mindsimultaneously, and acceptingboth of them....To tell deliberatelies while genuinely believing inthem, to forget any fact that has

become inconvenient, and then,when it becomes necessary again,to draw it back from oblivion forjust as long as it is needed, to denythe existence of objective realityand all the while to take account ofthe reality which one denies - allthis is indispensably necessary”.This is ‘Doublethink’, from GeorgeOrwell’s dystopia 1984.

And while our invisible gov-ernment is busy manipulatingpublic opinion to exploit brutalkillings of its citizens and soldiersfor political goals, it has failed tosee a gaping hole in its futureplans for the region.

The major problem with Pak-istan’s doctrine of strategic depthis not the simple trade-off betweenspace and time. It is that the law-less territory Pakistan wants towithdraw into – in order to sus-tain an initial thrust from Indiaand launch a counteroffensive –has quickly expanded southeast-wards to an extent that it threat-ens to eat up our country, ourculture, our trade and our mili-tary. The very civilisation that theyhad wanted to protect is now atrisk.

The writer is a media and cul-ture critic and works at The FridayTimes. He tweets @paagalinsaanand gets email at harris@nyu.edu

Pick-and-mix outrage

The army’s ghairat

Man bites DogBy Harris Bin Munawar

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comment 13wednesday, 11 January, 2012

talking the walk

A change in policy

2012 opened on a hopeful note for the Af-Pak region leaving behind a difficult yearpunctuated by serious turmoil in

Afghanistan and a major crisis in bilateral tiesbetween two principal actors in the war onterrorism. The crisis in the relationship, stillnot over, has nonetheless obliged both sidesto review an acrimonious and distrustful al-liance which hopefully will help impart ameasure of clarity in their respective positionson the Afghan scene.

The Americans seem to have finally recog-nised the merit of diplomatic engagementwith the Taliban, till recently a despisedenemy, in shaping the closing chapter of theAfghan endgame. Vice President Joe Biden’sremarkable statement that Taliban were notper se the enemy, in clear contradiction of thedecade long direction of the US war effortwhich had systematically targeted them, tes-tifies to a positive evolution in Washington’sthinking. The resilience of the Taliban in theface of a far superior hostile force seems tohave compelled the deduction that more warwould not lead to the creation of an environ-ment conducive for the timely and dignifiedwestern withdrawal from Afghanistan. The re-alisation that continued conflict, as opposedto a negotiated settlement, would henceforthbe detrimental to America’s long term inter-ests in the region may have accelerated theshift.

The US has not so far publicly resiled fromits declared position that any real

peace process must be precededby the insurgents agreeing toabandon violence, break with Al-Qaeda and abide by the Afghanconstitution. At the same time, itis understood that the acceptancein advance of these seemingly un-exceptionable demands would ob-viate the need for anynegotiations. It makes bettersense, which the Americans toowould appreciate, that theseterms would more appropriatelycomprise a part of the final agree-ment and not a precondition forthe talks. How can the Taliban beexpected to lay down arms whenISAF is still carrying them?

The Taliban have matched theevolution in the American ap-proach. Back channel contacts be-tween the two sides, sporadicallyreported in the media, have re-sulted in the Taliban decision toopen a political office in Doha, toserve as the locus of the antici-pated dialogue with the Ameri-cans. The previous Talibandemand of complete ISAF with-drawal prior to the commence-ment of negotiations is no longerbeing insisted upon.

The government of Hamid Karzai, follow-ing initial reservations, has signalled supportfor the opening of the Doha office provided itis used only for facilitating intra-Afghan talksi.e. between him and the Taliban. Undeniablya politically correct position but runs foul ofthe realities on the ground. There are twoprincipal protagonists in Afghanistan, the USand the Taliban; the rest would have to learnto operate through them. After having suc-cessfully resisted a superpower for over adecade, the Taliban would be singularly ill-ad-vised to negotiate the endgame with its proxy.By the same token, despite the fact that but forPakistan they would have faced severe deple-tion, the Taliban would be averse to Pakistan’sinterlocution on their behalf. For obvious rea-sons, they would want to negotiate directlywith the US.

Scepticism continues to be voiced as to theviability of this process. According to latest re-ports, some Taliban spokesmen have deniedany decision to negotiate with America. Onewould tend to interpret these denials in thecontext of shadow boxing which routinely pre-cedes the onset of serious talks. It should alsobe remembered that the adversaries havebeen engaged in deadly combat for the lastdecade. In such situations, posturing usuallymarks the shift from conflict to negotiation.The token demand for the release of a handfulof prisoners from Guantanamo should not betoo hard to meet. If this is what is required toenable the Taliban to claim victory beforetheir cadres, so be it. The addition of thesenumbers to the Taliban ranks will barely haveany impact on the conflictual equation. TheTaliban were clever enough to ask for a purelysymbolic gesture which is easily doable.

The main imponderable is the continuingdivergence in the perspectives of the WhiteHouse and the American military which, re-portedly, remains wedded to the idea of a de-cisive military victory in Afghanistan. Whileconflict will not end during the currency of thenegotiations its intensity would have to bemodulated to avoid a complete breakdown.President Obama’s firmness in sticking to thedeadline for the withdrawal of troops fromIraq, despite the sectarian showdown, and therecent unexpected surge in the US economyshould make him sufficiently self-assured toinsist on affixing his imprint on the Afghanendgame. His failure to ensure the withdrawalof the surge troops before November wouldmost likely cost him the election.

Where does Pakistan fit into all this? Theanswer to this question is likely to be shapedby the developments in our relations with theUS currently under review, which we shallleave for next week.

The writer is Pakistan’s former Ambassa-dor to the United Nations and EuropeanUnion. He can be contacted at shauka-tumer@hotmail.com

By Shaukat Umer

Waiting for the (in)glorious comeback

Pervez MacArthur?

It has been more than threeyears since Musharraf leftthe country, but it’s on the

announcement of his returnthat the detailed report of hisassets has been published. Thereport is obviously not justmere fancy, although the re-porter is notorious for passinghis wishes off as news. Nordoes it look like an investiga-tive report, which is simply be-yond the reporter’s capability.It likely came out of a file thatwas handed over to him by aninstitution, in order to discour-age Musharraf from headingback to Pakistan.

In other news, RehmanMalik has chosen to make pub-lic the preparations forMusharraf’s prospective stay atthe Landhi Jail. The interiorminister doesn’t appear tookeen on the retired generalboarding that flight home.Hardly surprising, consideringZardari’s already full plate,what with the NRO, Mem-ogate, the judiciary, the statewithin a state, etc. True,Zardari had attempted the im-possible (crazy?) task of put-ting the ISI under the ministryof interior, but those were en-tirely different times.

Back then, Nawaz Sharifand Imran Khan used to beMusharraf’s fiercest critics.However, Imran has since em-ployed half of Musharraf’steam, and now that peoplehave started taking him seri-ously he obviously doesn’twant to have to go after thecurrent COAS’s former boss.Sharif, threatened by Imran’ssupport in the establishmentand keen to offer his own serv-ices instead, isn’t exactly fan-

cying a fight with Musharrafeither.

The Supreme Court facesits own set of troubles in theevent of Musharraf’s return.One, it legitimised Musharraf’scoup of 1999 and gave him afree hand to amend the consti-tution (one will have to searchvery hard to find a parallelelsewhere). Two, Musharraf islikely to name names, if forcedto, and it will be difficult toconvict the “originator” with-out soiling the name of the“guarantor” of NRO. Also, onissues such as high treason andthe emergency, Musharraf’spartners in crime, includingthe corps commanders, will in-evitably enter the frame, caus-ing the court obviousdifficulties. Three, to projectany semblance of consistency,the court will have to be as ac-tive and enthusiastic on casesagainst Musharraf as it hasbeen on cases against the pres-ent government.

However, the institutionthat lands in the most precari-ous position if the comebackhappens is the one Musharrafserved for over 40 years. Con-sidering the short memories ofpeople of this country,Musharraf’s departure was thebest thing that could have hap-pened. Now that he is comingback, letting civilian courts tryhim will set a bad example.even trying such a high profilegeneral in military courts is apainful option.

Musharraf has also re-cently declared that Pakistanshould have diplomatic rela-tions with Israel. Makes sense,because if we couldn’t handleBangal, and we still can’t han-dle Balochistan, and we havemade a royal mess of the restof Pakistan; it is crazy to pre-tend to be the defender of thenon-existent Muslim ummah.But this wouldn’t exactly haveendeared the general to hisformer institution. By the way,I always marvel at the great in-sight our generals start dis-playing so soon after taking offtheir khakis.

Musharraf has now man-aged to achieve something thathe couldn’t in all those years in

power, that is, unite all the keyplayers by threatening to makea glorious comeback. I there-fore believe that the odds ofMusharraf actually landing inPakistan are very high indeed.However, it is going to be veryinteresting if he manages to getback somehow.

Let’s examine the likelyscenario. In many ways, it willbe a rerun of the RaymondDavis episode. The oppositionparties will be forced to de-mand the federal governmentto arrest him. For obvious rea-sons, the PPP-led coalition willresist the temptation, andwould much rather the Punjabprovincial government bask inthis glory. Nawaz Sharif willleave for england for his med-ical checkup (and an operationor two if needed), and on hisreturn will decide to leave thismatter alone. The SC will prob-ably hear the cases just like itdid the Asghar Khan case. Allthis, in the best interests of thecountry of course.

Musharraf is reported tobe seeking guarantees fromKing Abdullah of Saudi Arabiabefore landing in Pakistan. Theirony! Not very long ago, it wasSharif who was rescued by theHoly Kingdom but now theboot seems to be on the otherfoot. The boot is on the otherfoot in another respect as well.Benazir had made a comebackafter getting security guaran-tees from the Musharraf ad-ministration, but nowMusharraf is in need of sucharrangements. Benazir’s re-turn didn’t go too well. The un-fortunate scenario ofMusharraf meeting with a sim-ilar fate could solve a lot ofproblems for a remarkablyhigh number of players, in-cluding the religious funda-mentalists who almostsucceeded in killing him evenwhen he enjoyed presidentialsecurity. Returning to Pak-istan, therefore, may not be inMusharraf’s best interests ei-ther.

The writer is a member ofthe band Beygairat Brigadethat has recently released thesingle Aaloo Anday.

By Ali Aftab Saeed

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:33 AM Page 13

wednesday, 11 January, 2012

14 Foreign News

LAgOS: Gangs set up burning road-blocks, police fired tear gas and businessesshut in Nigeria Tuesday, the second day ofa national strike that has paralysed thecountry and left six people dead.

As thousands took to the streets toprotest soaring fuel costs, youth gangs setup roadblocks of burning tyres alongmajor roads in Lagos, the largest city inAfrica’s most populous nation, and threwstones at cars while extorting cash fromdrivers. Protesters marched through thestreets of the city to the sound of blaringafrobeat music, sometimes with soldiers

clapping and taking pictures. One personbrought a goat wrapped in a union flagwhile others carried a mock coffin la-belled “Badluck”, a play on the name ofPresident Goodluck Jonathan. Protestersencouraged those watching from theroadside to join in. The mass of marcherslater crossed a bridge and entered the his-toric centre of Lagos, chanting and danc-ing through the winding roads.

In one area of the city, protesters setup roadblocks and held up drivers, claim-ing a bus had run over someone on hisway to the demonstration and killed him.

Traders in another part of Lagos weresaid to have stayed away from a marketout of fear that criminals would seek torob them amid the unrest. In the north-ern city of Bauchi, police fired tear gasand shot into the air to disperse a fewthousand protesters at two locations, res-idents said. No one was reported hurt.The indefinite strike follows the govern-ment’s controversial move to end fuelsubsidies on January 1, which causedpetrol prices to more than double in acountry where most of the 160 millionpopulation lives on less than $2 a day. AFP

DAMASCUSafP

SYRIAN President Basharal-Assad on Tuesdayfirmed up a timetable forpromised reform in theface of 10 months of anti-

regime protests but vowed to crush“terrorism” with an iron fist.

Assad’s rare public address, lastingnearly two hours, came as the UN Se-curity Council prepared to discuss thecrisis amid opposition criticism of thefailure of a hard-won Arab League ob-server mission to end the bloodshed.

The embattled Syrian leader, whohas made repeated promises of reformsthat have failed to materialise in thepast, said a new constitution in place ofone which enshrines his Baath party’sdominant role would be put to a popu-lar vote as soon as the drafting hadbeen completed. “After legislation hasbeen drawn up and a constitution... wewill call a referendum... (maybe) in thefirst week of March.” he said, addingthat it would be followed by a generalelection. “elections must be linked to anew constitution,” he said. “They couldbe at the start of May.” Assad said thenew constitution would “focus on acentral issue — a multi-party system.”The president insisted no orders hadbeen given to the security forces toopen fire on civilian demonstrators and

insisted he was still optimistic despitethe violence which has rocked thecountry since March. “By law, nobodycan open fire, except in self-defence,”he said. “These past 10 months, despiteall their hardships, were very benefi-cial... I am confident about the future.”

Assad said that restoring securitywas the “absolute priority” for Syriaand pledged his government wouldtackle terrorism with an “iron fist,”after a Damascus suicide bombingkilled 26 people on Friday. “There canbe no let-up for terrorism — it must behit with an iron fist,” he said. “The bat-tle with terrorism is a battle for every-

one, a national battle, not only the gov-ernment’s battle,” said Assad. “Wemust deal with terrorism through alllegal methods. They have struck inno-cents... they are killing the Syrian peo-ple.” Assad rejected opposition chargesthat his regime was a dictatorship.

“I rule with the will of the people. IfI give up power, I will do so with thewill of the people too,” he said. “Thelargest part of the Syrian people wantreform and do not go out and violatelaws.” Assad hit out at the Arab League,which has had a widely criticised ob-server mission in Syria since December26 charged with overseeing a plan toend the violence, involving the with-drawal of troops from towns and citiesand the opening of negotiations withthe opposition. He asked what rightgovernments whose countries belongto the pan-Arab organisation, includingthe absolute monarchies of the Gulf,had to lecture Syria about democracyor reform. “The first parliament inSyria was in 1917. Where were theythen?” he asked. “Their situation is likea doctor who smokes and recommendsto his patient to give up smoking whilehe, the doctor, has a cigarette in hismouth.” As the Security Council pre-pared to discuss the crisis, the Syrianopposition has stepped up its calls forthe world body to take over the leadrole from the Arab League in efforts tofind a solution.

Syria clerics hitout at armedrebellion, sanctions

DAMASCUSafP

Syria’s top Muslim cleric called on rebels tolay down their arms while a Christiancounterpart hit out at Western sanctions, insermons aired by state television on Tuesday.Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed BadreddinHassoun and Greek Orthodox ArchbishopLuka al-Khuri were both speaking at an inter-faith memorial service in the capital’s HolyCross Church for 26 people killed in a suicidebombing in Damascus on Friday. “I call on allthose who have taken up arms... to lay themdown,” the mufti said. “If you want to sharepower, put forward your programme withouttaking up arms, and if we’re persuaded by it,we’ll implement it,” added Hassoun, whoseson Sariah was killed in October in a wave ofassassinations targeting figures seen as closeto the regime. Hassoun urged dissidents tomake the transition from “argument todialogue.” The archbishop, who officiated atthe church service, spoke out against theeuropean Union and United States sanctionsimposed on Syria to punish the regime for itsdeadly 10-month crackdown on dissent.“Those who are imposing sanctions onSyrians and threatening their daily breadknow neither Jesus Christ nor the meaning ofdemocracy, neither human rights nor humanvalues,” said Khuri.

Iraq bombs kill six,

including 6 schoolboysBAgHDAD

afP

Bomb attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq onTuesday killed six people, including an armycolonel and three schoolboys, security officialssaid, a day after a spate of violence left 17dead. In the disputed town of Saadiyah, Diyalaprovince, Colonel Hassan Ali was killed whena roadside bomb struck the convoy he wastravelling in, Saadiyah mayor Ahmed al-Zarkushi and a provincial security commandcentre official said. Three of Ali’s bodyguardswere wounded in the 5:00 am (0200 GMT)attack in Saadiyah, which lies in a tract ofdisputed territory claimed by both the centralgovernment in Baghdad and Iraq’sautonomous Kurdish region. In anotherroadside bomb attack in the village of Yathreb,in Salaheddin province around 70 kilometres(45 miles) north of the capital, three boys agedbetween nine and 11 years old were killedwhile going to school, a police officer and amedic at nearby Balad hospital said.

Israel ‘preparing to

take in Syria

refugees’: army chiefJERUSALEM

afP

Israel is preparing to receive SyrianAlawite refugees on the occupied GolanHeights if the regime of President Basharal-Assad collapses, Israel’s army chief ofstaff said on Tuesday. “On the day theAssad regime falls, it is expected to harmthe Alawite clan. We are preparing toreceive Alawite refugees on the GolanHeights,” Lieutenant General Benny Gantztold MPs at the parliamentary committeeon foreign affairs and defence, in remarkscommunicated by a spokesman. It was thefirst time that a senior Israeli official hadraised the possibility that members of theAlawite minority, which includes the Assadfamily, could seek refugee in Israel inorder to escape an expected backlash inthe event the regime collapses. The Assadfamily are Alawites, members of a Shiiteminority group who are stronglyrepresented in the top ranks of the Syrianarmy and the ruling Baath party. Gantzalso said Assad’s fall was likely to affect itsalliance with Iran, Lebanon’s HezbollahShiite militia and the Palestinian IslamistHamas movement. “Assad cannot remainin power and his fall could cause cracks inthe radical axis,” he said.

Libya given

$20 billion of freed

assets, says ministertRIPOLI

afP

Libya has received roughly $20 billion inassets that were held overseas by MoamerGaddafi’s regime and frozen during theconflict that ousted him, the foreignminister said on Tuesday. An estimated$150 billion (117 billion euros) of overseasassets were frozen following UN SecurityCouncil sanctions against his regime duringthe popular uprising and civil war that led tothe dictator’s downfall. On Tuesday, LibyanForeign Minister Ashur bin Khayyal saidmost of the $20 billion received so far by thecountry’s new government came fromUnited States, France and other europeanstates. “I don’t have the exact figure, but Iknow that the first tranche is approximately$20 billion,” Khayyal told reporters at anevent focused on the future of the UN’smission in Libya. When asked by AFP ifLibya had received these funds, Khayyalsaid: “Yes, it has been received,” but therehas not yet been independent verification asto whether the money has been depositedwith the Central Bank of Libya.

Case of tortured girl

to be taken to

afghan presidentKABUL

afP

The case of a tortured Afghan child bridethat shocked the world will be takendirectly to President Hamid Karzai onWednesday, a lawyer for a women’s groupsaid. Sahar Gul, 15, who was burned andbeaten and had her fingernails pulled outafter she defied efforts to force her intoprostitution, was found in the basement ofher husband’s house in northeasternBaghlan province last month. The girl, whohad been locked in a toilet there for sixmonths, is still traumatised and barely ableto speak of her ordeal but wants herhusband and in-laws jailed, said AfghanWomen’s Network lawyer Wida Latif. “Wemet her a couple of day ago, and when shesaw us she burst into tears,” Latif told AFPTuesday. “She still suffers from trauma,and still has bruises all over her body. Shecannot speak a lot but she told us ‘I wantmy husband and in-laws sent to prison’.“She needs special care. We will meet thepresident tomorrow and ask him to giveher a place to live in, or else she will betaken to a women’s shelter and will beforgotten like many other women who livein those shelters.”

Assad firms up reformtimetable, vows to crush terror

Burning roadblocks on secondday of nigeria fuel strike

Cairo: egyptian women show their ink-stained fingers after voting at a polling station in Cairo’s al-Sahel district during a re-run round of landmark parliamentary elections on tuesday. AFP

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:33 AM Page 14

Foreign News 15wednesday, 11 January, 2012

tEHRANafP

IRAN’S showdown with the Westslid closer to dangerous confronta-tion on Tuesday as internationalalarm over a new uranium enrich-ment plant and Tehran’s death

sentence for a “CIA spy” raised the stakes.Both sides were digging in, with Iran’s

defiance hardening and the United Statesand european Union actively taking stepsto fracture the Iranian economy throughfurther sanctions. The IAeA’s confirma-tion on Monday that Iran had begun en-riching uranium in a new, undergroundbunker southwest of Tehran was seizedupon by the United States, Britain, Franceand Germany as an unacceptable “viola-tion” of UN Security Council resolutions.

But Iran’s envoy to the InternationalAtomic energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh,on Tuesday shot back that the stance was

“politically motivated”. The undergroundFordo plant had been revealed two years agoand documented, he said. The 20-percentenriched uranium it was to produce wouldbe used for “peaceful and humanitarian”purposes, namely isotopes for cancer treat-ment, he said. Both Solatanieh and the IAeAstressed that the UN nuclear watchdog had24-hour cameras there and inspectors tokeep it under watch. That seemed unlikely toreassure the United States, though, or itschief Middle east ally, Israel, analysts said.

“Israel, which has already warned Iranthat it could take military action against in-stallations, is very, very worried by this fa-cility ... We are moving into dangerousterritory,” said Mark Hibbs of the Carnegieendowment for International Peace. Butwhile Iran downplayed the significance ofFordo — and affirmed it was ready to re-sume nuclear talks with world powers thatcollapsed a year ago — it continues to sendtough signals to its longtime foe, the United

States. On Monday, a Revolutionary Courtin Tehran sentenced an American formerMarine, Amir Mirzai Hekmati, to deathafter convicting him of being a CIA spy. TheUnited States has called for the release ofHekmati, 28, who also holds Iranian na-tionality through his Iranian family whosettled in the United States before his birth.

US officials said the allegation he wassent by the CIA to infiltrate the Iranian in-telligence ministry was false, though StateDepartment spokeswoman Victoria Nu-land would not answer a question aboutwhether Hekmati had links to any otherUS intelligence service. “I don’t think weneed to go any further than what we’vebeen saying, which is we consider thesecharges a complete fabrication,” Nulandsaid. Iran, which last month put on displaywhat it said was a CIA reconnaissancedrone it claimed to have captured throughcyberwarfare, has also been stepping upmilitary exercises in a show of strength.

West edges closer to confrontation with Iran

Suicide groupstorms afghan govtbuilding, 7 killed

KABULafP

Three policemen and four civilians were killedwhen a group of suicide bombers stormed agovernment building in southeasternAfghanistan on Tuesday, the interior ministrysaid. After a siege that lasted for hours, all thebombers were killed, ministry spokesmanSediq Sediqqi told AFP. “There were threesuicide bombers, one of them was gunneddown by police, the two others detonatedthemselves. “Three policemen and fourcivilians have been martyred, and twopolicemen and one civilian have beeninjured,” he said. The group of suicidebombers seized a building housing thedirectorate of communication in Sharana, thecapital city of Paktika province, after killing apolice guard at the gate. Police surroundedthe building and two policemen were killed inthe ensuing gunbattle, a ministry statementsaid. It was not immediately clear how thefour civilians died. Taliban insurgents fightingthe government of President Hamid Karzaiclaimed responsibility for the attack.Provincial governor Muhibullah Samim toldAFP he believed the bombers had planned totarget an intelligence office close to thebuilding they had taken over.

North korea military

pledges support

for new leaderSEOUL

afP

North Korea’s powerful military has held amass rally to pledge loyalty to the country’snew chief Kim Jong-Un, vowing to become“rifles and bombs” to protect him, officialmedia said Tuesday. The North alsoannounced a rare amnesty for prisoners asthe untested young leader tries to buildsupport. Service members promised to“become rifles and bombs to serve as KimJong-Un first-line lifeguards and KimJong-Un first-line death-defying corps”,the official KCNA news agency said. Theregime moved quickly to proclaim Jong-Un, aged in his late 20s, as its new chiefafter the sudden death of his father andsupreme leader Kim Jong-Il on December17. It has appointed the son, who is rankeda general but has no known active militaryexperience, supreme commander of the 1.2million-strong military. On Sunday statemedia showed Jong-Un driving a tank andgiving orders to artillery, navy and airforce units, in an apparent attempt tobolster his credentials with the world’sfourth-largest armed forces. KCNA saidarmed forces chief Ri Yong-Ho read thepledge of loyalty to Jong-Un at Monday’srally in Pyongyang of the three branches ofthe military, which ended with a marchpast. The message pledged to “wipe out theenemies to the last one if they intrude intothe inviolable sky, land and seas of thecountry even 0.001 mm”, it said.

NEW DELHIafP

India’s Premier Manmohan Singh calledmalnutrition in the country “a nationalshame” on Tuesday as he released amajor survey that found 42 percent ofchildren under five were underweight.

“The problem of malnutrition is a matterof national shame,” Singh said at the launchof the HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutri-tion) Report, which surveyed 73,000 house-holds across nine states. “Despite impressivegrowth in our GDP, the level of under-nutri-tion in the country is unacceptably high. Wehave also not succeeded in reducing this ratefast enough,” the 79-year-old prime ministeradded. Singh said the findings of the reportby an alliance of non-government organisa-tions were both “worrying and encouraging”for India — a fast-growing country of 1.2 bil-lion people with the highest number of chil-dren worldwide.

The research found the proportion ofunder-fives who are underweight had de-clined 11 percentage points in seven years,but Singh said it remained “unacceptablyhigh” at 42 percent. “We cannot hope for ahealthy future with a large number of mal-nourished children,” he said. India’s econ-omy has boomed in the last 20 years since aliberalisation wave began in 1991, with GDPgrowth rates of nearly 10 percent in the last

decade helping to change perceptions of thecountry. Foreign companies and India’spowerful conglomerates have invested heav-ily, selling vast quantities of cars, luxurygoods and Western lifestyle products to thegrowing middle classes. Rohini Mukherjee,from the Naadi Foundation, one of NGOsthat produced the report, said the wealthcreated in a country estimated to have 57 bil-lionaires last year had not trickled down fastenough to the impoverished masses. Meas-

ured by the prevalence of malnutrition,India is “doing worse than sub-SaharanAfrica,” she told AFP, echoing observationsmade by UN children’s agency UNICeF.

This is despite the world’s biggest gov-ernment programme for early childhooddevelopment, called the Integrated ChildDevelopment Services Scheme, which isseen as riddled with corruption and inef-ficiency. Data from UNICeF shows thatone in three malnourished children world-

wide is found in India, with 47 percent ofunder-threes underweight. The survey byNaandi and its partners was the “first of itskind” in its scope and methodology,Mukherjee said. The last governmentaudit at a district level was carried out in2004. One of the findings in the new re-search was that malnourished children inIndia were rarely hungry, merely badly feddue to widespread ignorance about nutri-tion among Indian parents.

BEIJINgafP

A top Chinese diplomat said Tuesdaywar over the Iranian nuclear issue wouldbring disaster to the world economy andurged all nations involved to exerciserestraint and prevent hostilities. Theremarks by Chen Xiaodong, a topChinese diplomat on Middle easternaffairs, came as Iran’s showdown withthe West slid closer to confrontation asalarm over its new uranium enrichmentplant and Tehran’s death sentence for a

“CIA spy” raised the stakes. “We urge allrelevant nations to remain calm,exercise restraint, refrain from takingactions that will intensify the situationand make common efforts to preventwar,” Chen said in an online interviewwith state media. “everyone knows that40 percent of the oil shipped daily toevery part of the world goes through theStrait of Hormuz, so once war starts inthis region not only will the relevantnations be affected and attacked, itwould also ... bring disaster to a worldeconomy deep in crisis.”

india’s malnutrition ‘a national shame’: PM

China says war overiran will bring disaster

bagHDaD: iraqi Shia pilgrims walk to the holy city of Karbala to mark arbaeen in baghdad’s Dora district on tuesday. AFP

HYeDerabaD: a file picture shows indian schoolchildren waiting in line for their mid-day meal at a government primary school. AFP

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:33 AM Page 15

16 wednesday, 11 January, 2012

SOCIETY

Hrithik turns 38,MuMbai: Being an on-again, off-againboyfriend to a pretty woman is a difficultjob. ask Shahid kapoor. when the actorswere in a relationship, he wouldconstantly pretend that he was singleand rubbish all rumours. he also had tocarefully plan his amorous trysts withthe former Miss world so that theywouldn’t be caught by the media’s rovingeye. But despite their break-up, it seemsShahid has a huge soft spot for hisformer lady love. Or perhaps he was justplaying the gallant knight in shiningarmour. whatever be the reason, Shahidproved he truly cares about Priyankawhen he protected her from a mob ofover 30,000 fans recently! Thousands offans turned up at the Daulatabad Fort,where Shahid and Piggy Chops were bothshooting for kunal kohli's upcoming filmtitled ‘Teri Meri kahaani.’ as time passed,the crowd, anxious to catch a glimpse ofthe stars became so uncontrollable thatit led to a stampede. Priyanka startedgetting a bit jittery when Shahid,swooped her up and took her away fromthe crowd. when director kunal kohli(‘Break ke Baad,’ ‘hum Tum’) wasapproached for comment he denied theincident altogether and said he was toobusy filming the movie to notice anythingthat happened outside the sets. well wedon’t know about kunal but we do knowone man who has his constant attentionon Priyanka and is ready to put himselfin harm’s way to keep her safe! agenCieS

B-town says 'Happy Birthday'MuMbai: hrithik Roshan turned 38 Tuesdayand wishes from tinsel town came pouringin for the star. Friends and colleagueswished success and happiness to theBollywood heartthrob who is ready tocharm his fans as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan inthe new version of ‘agneepath’, coming outJan 26. here is what they had to say:BIpAsHA BAsu: “My birthday has justgone...now it is hrithik, fellow Capricorn, soya happy Birthday.”ARjuN RAMpAL: “hrithik we love you.you have become so fit and you are aninspiration for all of us, have a superb year.”AsIN THOTTuMKAL: “I wish him avery happy Birthday and a great year aheadand a great life ahead.”pREITY ZINTA: “happy Birthday to mydearest, hottest and sweetest friend withthe nicest heart!!! Love you... have aRocking 2012.”FARHAN AKHTAR: “happy birthday@ihrithik. wish you a Super-heroic year.”ABHIsHEK BACHCHAN: “happybirthday @ihrithik have a great yearbrobraz!!!” agenCieS

Brands

wows shoppersJust Prêt

MuMbai: Veena Malik and riya Sen, known for their time rivalry, courtesy ashmit Patel,are playing lead roles in ‘Zindagi 50-50’, but they shot their scenes separately. nowdirector rajeev ruia wants them to shoot an item number together for the movie. riya,

an ex-girlfriend of ashmit, was not really comfortable sharing thescreen space with Veena who came closer to the actor when

they participated in fourth season of the reality show ‘biggboss’. “both Veena and riya had problems with each other.they didn't want to face each other. So i had to scheduletwo different shoots for both Veena and riya. i am donewith Veena's shoot and presently we are busy with riya'sshoot,” ruia said. but now he wants them to shoottogether for an item number. “after finishing the entire

film, i have decided to direct an item song with Veena andriya. i will try my best to convince both of them for

the item number,” said ruia. ‘Zindagi 50-50’ isabout the lives of three struggling girls and thecast also includes Supriya Kumari, rajpal Yadav,arya babbar and rajan Verma. While Veena playsa sex worker, riya will be seen as a junior artistin it. before casting Veena, ruia had signednisha Kothari. “after watching Veena in ‘biggboss’, i thought she will be perfect as a sexworker and will justify the role. So i asked Veenato replace nisha Kothari,” he said. agenCieS

teamRiya may Shahid is Priyanka’s

true hero

KaraCHi: guests attend the opening

of the brands Just Prêt store.

NEWS DESK

BRANDS Just Prêt, a high-endluxury prêt multi brand store,opened its doors to eager shop-pers on December 23rd. Lo-cated in the centrally situated

new Dolmen City Mall in Clifton, Brands JustPrêt is positioning itself as a luxurious andbut affordable option amongst the existingmulti-brand stores. The range of productsavailable at Brands Just Prêt ranges from prêtwear, to shoes, jewellery, bags and clutches.

Hadi Anwar, CeO of Brands Just Prêtsaid: “I strongly believe that we are fulfillinga niche in the market by providing a homefor luxury prêt. We plan to set internationalstandards when it comes to shop décor, cus-tomer services, quality of products being re-tailed, selection of our designers and theoverall look and feel of our first “state of theart” outlet, designed by Najmi Bilgrami Col-laborative Limited and fitted out by Dimen-sions. For us, this is just the beginning of along ambitious journey.” Brands Just Prêtcurrently stocks more than 30 designers in-cluding Sublime by Sara Shahid, AyeshaKhurram and Slate by Faiza Samee. Sub-lime is one of the pioneers of prêt in Pak-istan, while Ayesha Khurram is a recent starwhose pop art embroidery motifs are all therage in the country. Slate is also one of themost recognisable and popular upcomingprêt brands. Other prominent names in-clude Wardha Saleem, Ayesha, Somaya,Zainab Sajid, Limited editions, Hina Khan,Zarmina, Farida Qureshi, Nida Ali, Naaj,Hejab Zafar and Amrah Khan.

“I feel we have an excellent line-up ofdesigners,” said Hadi, 33, who is based inthe UAe and plans to expand Brands JustPrêt internationally. “We have been veryparticular and choosy in putting together a

list of designers who produce high-endproducts, attract crowds and complimentthe design aesthetic of Brands Just Pret.”

The backbone of Brands Just Prêt are thetwo managing directors, Hasaah Hadi andSomaya Adnan. Hadi has extensive back-ground in marketing, human resource and fi-nance which provides the required businessfoundation and strength to Brands Just Prêt.She has been actively planning the expansionof Brands Just Prêt internationally. After thesuccessful soft launch of the store in Karachi,she is working towards the opening of thesecond retail outlet in the Middle east.

On the other side, one half of therenowned Ayesha Somaya brand, Somaya isa dynamic and versatile businesswoman whohas managed to build her own retail brandinto an easily recognisable brand. Now shebrings this understanding of fashion retail torunning Brands Just Prêt. “Being a designerhas helped me greatly in developing BrandsJust Prêt’s business model,” said SomayaAdnan. “I am well aware of the hurdles andnuisances I face when stocking at otherplaces and this is why we have tried our bestto tailor made Brands Just Prêt into a modelwhich is designer friendly.”

Hadi continues, “I feel that we have avery strong, versatile and tenacious teamwhich is why we have achieved in months allwhat other Multi Brand Stores aspire toachieve in years. The model seems to beworking because designers are already rav-ing about Brands Just Prêt.”

Brands Just Prêt Karachi is expected tobe just one of a series of retail outlets whichwill be opened up in the next few years. Asecond retail outlet in the UAe is expectedto open up shortly, possibly followed bymore outlets in the Middle east. The teamalso has plans of expanding nationally tocities like Lahore and Islamabad.

Snoop Dogg arrested for marijuana possession

with Veena for item number

SAN ANtONIOreuterS

Rapper SnoopDogg was ar-rested over theweekend afterborder controlagents foundwhat they saidwas a smallamount ofmarijuana onhis tour bus. A spokesman for the sheriff'soffice said Snoop Dogg “freely admitted”

the pot belonged to him. He said a dogfound a prescription bottle containingrolled marijuana joints and two other con-tainers with marijuana. The rapper wascited for possession of drug parapherna-lia. Snoop Dogg has been arrested andconvicted numerous times in the last 10years for possession of drugs rangingfrom marijuana to cocaine, and weaponsoffences. In 2008, Snoop Dogg and WillieNelson collaborated on the song andmusic video ‘My Medicine’, a thinly veiledhomage to marijuana. Both artists havemade their appreciation of pot an impor-tant part of their public personas.

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LOS aNgeLeS: Charlie Sheen has assuredtV critics he is getting his career back ontrack and said that last year's bizarre anticswere merely a “crazy” episode. the 46-year-old actor said that he has put last year'stroubles behind him. “i'm not crazy anymore. that was an episode,” news.com.auquoted the actor as telling People Magazine.“everything is a lot more mellow andfocused and much more rooted in reality,” hesaid. Sheen was fired from his hit CbS comedyshow last March for his hard-partying ways andverbal attacks on the show's creator ChuckLorre, is now seeking to shift publicity fromhis personal life to the forthcoming fXseries ‘anger Management’, whichhe both produces and stars in.“it's nice to be in a situationwhere the people i'mworking with are excitedabout my input. that wasn'tthe case for a long time,” headded. agenCieS

17

'crazy'

KUALA LUMPURafP

Malaysia's defence ministry onTuesday blamed the use of GoogleTranslate for the mangled english thatappeared on its website sparkingonline ridicule. The translations fromthe Malay language into englishincluded dress guidelines for ministrystaff that prohibited “clothes that pokeeye”-a reference to revealing attire.Instead, the dress code recommendedwomen wear “appropriate clothing andworn neatly and politely in line withthe practice of noble character”,according to blog postings. Users ofGoogle and other free onlinetranslation services can see theirwords and sentences instantlyconverted from one language intoanother when they type into a text box.But the results can be varied. Anothersection of the ministry's website saidthat after 1957 independence fromBritain, the new Malaysiangovernment took “drastic measures toincrease the level of any nationalsecurity threat”. SnickeringMalaysians passed the bungledtranslations around via socialnetworking sites. The passages havesince been removed from theministry's website. “We have correctedthe mistakes and translations are nolonger done that way. It is now donemanually,” Defence Minister AhmadZahid Hamidi told The Star daily.Malaysia's national language is Malaybut english is taught in schools fromthe early grades and official mattersare often conducted in a mixture ofboth languages. Many Malaysiansspeak both languages fluently butthere has been growing public hand-wringing over a perceived recentdecline in english levels and thepotential for that to harm the country'scompetitiveness.

days are overMuMbai: Katrina Kaif has bagged the covetedrole opposite southern legend rajinikanth inKochadaiyaan, being directed by none otherthan his daughter, Soundarya. When contacted,Soundarya confirmed the developments, saying:“Yes, we are indeed in talks with Katrina and wewill let you know soon.” Katrina, who is busyshooting two back-to-back Yash raj films – ‘ektha tiger’ with Salman Khan, and an untitledone with Shah rukh Khan - willaccommodate rajinikanth's dates inbetween her tight schedule. all otherportions of the film have been shot, andonly the ones with Katrina remain. Herdates will be worked out soon, and thefilm will then be complete, the membersaid. a r rahman is composing the musicfor the film. as for Katrina, it will be toughbut she really wanted to work withrajinikanth for the longest possible time,according to a friend. the first look ofKochadaiyaan, which literally means, ‘theking with long hair’, will be unveiled in thethird week of January. of course, rajinikanthwill sport long flowing tresses for the part-even if it means donning a wig. agenCieS

Katrina Kaif toShahid is Priyanka’s

true hero

Charlie Sheen insists

NEWS DESK

PAKISTANI actressVeenaMalik has de-nied reports about heracknowledging posingnude for international

magazines and Hollywood assign-ments. The actress claimed thatshe has been misquoted and thatshe would never do anything whichwould tarnish her reputation.

Veena revealed that she has al-ready shunted the offers given toher by renowned internationalmagazines to pose nude. A sourceclose to Veena Malik has confirmedthat she did get offers from the Play

Boy, Sun UK and Zoo magazinewith a huge amount of money butshe refused to pose nude.

She said: “I have been mis-quoted by a media agency that Iwas willingly to do anything if I wasoffered Hollywood films as theworking culture was different fromIndian and Pakistani films.”

Veena did quote: “When I'm inHollywood I would do what is ex-pected of me within their industry.I'm an entertainer after all.”

“But this doesn't mean that Iwould go nude for work. How canone reach to any such conclu-sions,” clarified Veena who ispresently in Dubai.

Pose nude? Never: Veena

Picasso painting stolenfrom greek gallery

AtHENS bbC

A Picasso painting, given to the AthensNational Gallery by the artist himself,was stolen along with two othervaluable works of art. Picasso's‘Woman's Head’ was given to Greecein 1949 in recognition of the country'sresistance to Nazi Germany. In astatement, police said a Mondrianpainting and a sketch by Italian artistGuglielmo Caccia had also been stolen.The heist took place shortly before05:00 local time and took just sevenminutes, police added. The thief orthieves broke into the back of thegallery after forcing open a balconydoor. All three artworks were strippedfrom their frames.A guard was alerted by a burglaralarm and caught sight of thesilhouette of a person running fromthe building. He ran after the thief,who dropped another painting -Mondrian's ‘Landscape’ - as he madehis escape. Police said the guard hadbeen distracted by several alarmsgoing off at various points in thebuilding earlier in the evening. Whenhe went to investigate, he found no-one in the gallery. The police addedthat the theft occurred on the final dayof an exhibition called ‘UnknownTreasures’, which included works byGerman artist Albrecht Duerer andRembrandt. Museum officials havenot yet determined the worth of thestolen artwork, but closed the galleryas a result of the break-in. It wasalready scheduled to to close forexpansion and refurbishment workfollowing the end of the ‘UnknownTreasures’ exhibition.

LOS ANgELES reuterS

Pop singer Katy Perry onMonday pulled out of thisweek's People's ChoiceAwards show and whatwould have been her firstmajor public appearancesince her split with husbandRussell Brand. Perry, 27,one of the leading nomineesin the first big Hollywoodawards show of the year,said in a Twitter message:“Unfortunately I will not beable to attend the People'sChoice Awards. I want tothank u all for voting forme, fingers crossed!” Perry,who has enjoyed a string ofhits with songs like‘Teenage Dream’ and ‘Fire-work’, is up for favouritepop artist and favourite fe-male pop artist and hadbeen listed as attending theceremony, which takesplace on Wednesday in LosAngeles. But the awardsshow, to be shown live onU.S. television, comes 10days after Brand filed di-vorce papers to end their 14month-old marriage. Bub-bly singer Perry and Britishcomedian Brand wed in2010 and became a powercouple in show business.But they spent Christmas

thousands of miles apart,confirming weeks of mediaspeculation that their mar-riage was on the rocks.Perry has since kept a lowprofile and has said littleabout the split apart from aTwitter message on Satur-

day in which she urged fansnot to trust gossip. “Con-cerning the gossip, I want tobe clear that NO ONespeaks for me. Not a blog,magazine, ‘close sources’ ormy family,” she said in atweet.

Katy Perry exits showafter split from Brand

Rajinikanth

Google translations

eye-poked over

romance

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Page 21

wednesday, 11 January, 2012

Tough Sydney openersfor wozniacki, kvitova

The ghost of India’s horrendous englandtour last summer is haunting MS Dhoni andCo. in Australia. The pre-series premonitionof India conceding a 2-0 lead to Australiahas already come true. If Dhoni and his mendo not improve their body language on thefield and see the Australians in the eye, Aus-tralia will win the next two Tests in Perthand Adelaide and win 4-0. Winning athome does not make any side the No. 1 teamin the world. India’s reputation had taken abeating in england and the signs are not en-couraging in Australia, either.

Winning matters, but to win overseas isthe real thing. India does well in their back-yard but are found wanting when they playon foreign pitches. When I was playing, Pak-istan had won in New Zealand, Australia,

West Indies and england and that made usa top side.

The innings defeat at Sydney was India’ssixth successive Test loss, overseas. The con-sistency in such poor performance is clearlyalarming.

India are seriously looking out of sorts.There seems to be no planning in the team.Players are just looking like individuals andnot gelling as a unit. This is surprising con-sidering the fact that almost the same teamwere world No. 1 just a few months back.

India’s inability to match Australia’s ag-gression has been disappointing. India lostthe plot on the second day itself. It was dis-heartening to see the fielders lose hope asthe Aussie batsmen piled on the runs. Thelack of coordination between players mademe feel that India are going to field for an-other two days. The seniors were not talkingwith their young bowlers. It was only SachinTendulkar whom I saw chatting with IshantSharma. Such body language was very un-like Dhoni and company.

Australia were three down for 37 on Day2 and it was the opportune time for India tostrike hard. But as soon as Ponting and Clarketook control, the complexion of the Indian at-tack changed for the worse in just six or sevenovers. The shoulders drooped and the fieldingbecame dull. So the overall body language wasvery negative. (eSPN STAR)

Australia on course for 4-0 rout of India

waSIM akRaM

SYDNEYafP

Australian vice-captain Brad Haddin hastaken aim at struggling India, saying thetourists "break quicker than anyone in theworld" and turn on each other when thingsare not going their way.

Wicketkeeper Haddin turned up theheat on India, trailing 2-0 ahead of Fri-day's third Test in Perth, by revealing thatAustralia had discussed the tourists' men-tal frailties.

India were crushed by an innings and68 runs in last week's second Test in Syd-ney after losing the series opener in Mel-bourne by 122 runs.

Australian captain Michael Clarkescored 329 not out, and Ricky Ponting andMichael Hussey hit centuries as Australiakept the Indians slaving in the field for al-most 11 hours in amassing 659 for four de-clared in Sydney.

"We spoke about a bit of that when wewere batting," Haddin was quoted as say-ing in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The longer we could keep them out onthe field the bigger chance we had of

breaking them."We know this side can be as fragile as

any team in the world if things aren't goingtheir way and they can turn on each otherand the media turns on them pretty quick.

"We knew if we could keep them outthere and put the numbers like we did onthe board we knew we'd get the rewardsbecause they break quicker than anyone inthe world."

Fast bowler Ryan Harris, expected toplay in Perth for the injured James Pattin-son, has also said India were "down andout already" and being torn apart by inter-nal divisions. Former players and captainshave criticised the Indian team's perform-ance with the latest focus on senior bats-man V.V.S. Laxman. Former Indianbatsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes Lax-man, 37, should be dropped at the WACAground, allowing for a Test debut for RohitSharma in the middle order and for ViratKohli to retain his place.

Haddin also indicated Australia haddetected a weakness in Sachin Tendulkar,whose quest for a 100th international hun-dred will resume in Perth.

Tendulkar has been the standout In-

dian batsman in the first two Tests, making226 runs at an average of 56.5, but he isstill short of that elusive milestone.

"What we have found is if we can buildenough pressure on him he wants to scoreand he wants to feel bat on ball and hewants to get into a rhythm," Haddin said.

"We find if we can push him a littlewider, make him feel for the ball a bit wecan build enough pressure to get a chanceand it's worked in the last two Tests."

Haddin told a radio sports programmethat paceman Peter Siddle had the abilityto get under Tendulkar's skin.

Siddle dismissed him twice at the MCGbefore Pattinson and Clarke removed the38-year-old legend in Sydney.

"We've found he can be a bit uncom-fortable in the areas Siddle's been bowlingto him," Haddin said.

"I knew if we could build enough pres-sure we can create a chance to get him.He's a great player and it's always a privi-lege to play against guys like this.

"There's been a lot of talk about hishundredth hundred but from our point ofview it's our job to make sure he doesn't getit this series."

Haddin takes swipe at struggling indians

amir could stillhave internationalcareer, says PCB

KARACHI reuterS

Teenage Pakistan fast bowler Moham-mad Amir, serving six-months in jail forspot-fixing elements of a test match,could still have a future in internationalcricket, Pakistan Cricket Board chairmanZaka Ashraf said. Amir, 19, was detainedfor six months in a young offenders insti-tution after he admitted bowling two in-tentional no-balls in the Lord's testagainst england in August 2010. Amir,along with team mates Mohammad Asifand Salman Butt, was banned for a mini-mum of five years by the InternationalCricket Council in February last year."Whenever he is cleared by the Interna-tional Cricket Council and serves hispunishment, wethink he needsintense coun-selling and thenthe selectors candecide abouthim,"Ashraftold anews con-ference onTuesday."As far ashis playingagain is con-cerned thatis for theselectorsto de-cidebe-causethere isno doubtabout his im-mense talentand he is stillvery young."Amir has taken51 wickets in 14tests.Former captainButt and Asifwere jailed for 30months and oneyear respectivelyby a Londoncourt in Novem-ber for their partin the gambling-inspired plot.

DUBAIafP

PAKISTAN cricket captain Misbah-ul Haqon Tuesday stressed the need for forgettingthe 2010 spot-fixing scandal when his teamtake on england in the first of three Testshere next week. The Pakistan captain got the

first taste of how the series -- the first between the twocountries since the scandal -- will be seen during his pressconference after arriving here on Monday.

The scandal, related to the bowling of deliberate no-balls during the Lord's Test against england, ended in jailterms for then captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif andMohammad Amir. When asked about the scandal, a visiblyupset Misbah said: "That's the past, we don't get into that.I am only focusing on what we can do on the ground. Ithink everybody knows in both teams that we just have toforget the past." Since the scandal, the Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) has implemented a strict code of conduct forthe players and introduced anti-corruption courses forboth international and domestic cricketers. Misbah saidcorruption in Pakistan cricket was no more a concern.

"It's not an area of concern for me. Our area of concernis to play good cricket, fair cricket, and that's what we cando," said Misbah, under whom Pakistan have not lost aTest series since the spot-fixing scandal. And since he re-placed Shahid Afridi as one-day captain, Misbah has ledPakistan to wins over Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka andBangladesh. Misbah said the credit goes to the players.

"I think the credit goes to the team and all the playersafter that difficult time," he said. "They just wanted to col-lect their thoughts and prove to the world that we are goodplayers, a good team, and I think they just proved it.

"They are really focusing on their cricket and makingmy job easier. The players are ready to give their hundredpercent and we are concerned with the present and fu-ture, not about the past." Misbah said the series againstengland will be played in good spirit. "Our target is justto play cricket in the true spirit ... good relations, and playreally good and hard cricket," he said. Misbah alsopraised his off-spinner, Saeed Ajmal, who took 50 Testwickets last year.

"Ajmal is a fine bowler and has a lot of variations butwe are not depending on him only," said Misbah of Ajmal,who has promised to use a surprise delivery against eng-land. "england will have to explore themselves. Let's seehow england's batsmen tackle it. That's a secret."

england, who earned a hard-fought three-wicket winagainst an ICC Combined IX here on Monday, take on aPCB XI in another three-day game here from Wednesday.

The first Test starts on January 17. Both teams will alsoplay four one-day and three Twenty20 internationals.

Pakistan promise freshstart against England

DUBaI: Pakistan captain Misbah ul-haq stretches with teammate Umar gul during a practice session at the ICC global academy. AFP

eXPert CoMMent

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sports 19wednesday, 11 January, 2012

LAHOREStaff rePort

TH e MCC plans to send adelegation to Pakistan toinvestigate the possibilityof staging internationalcricket in the country, it

was learnt Tuesday. No internationalside has toured the country since theSri Lanka team was attacked by ter-rorists in Lahore in 2009, with Pak-istan staging their 'home' matcheselsewhere since.

Pakistan is cur-rently hosting eng-land in the nearbyUnited Arab emi-rates. Following thisweek's meeting inCape Town, theMCC's world cricketc o m m i t t e enoted "someo p t i m i s m "with regardto security inthe country,reports quotedformer PCB chiefexecutive MajidKhan, also an ex-Testplayer, about the security situa-tion.

Following the meeting, the MCC re-leased a statement which read: "Thecommittee notes with some optimismthe security improvements over recent

months."In light of this presentation, the

MCC world cricket committee recom-mends that, subject to Government ad-vice and MCC committee approval, asmall delegation from the club visitsPakistan to assess the situation, its suit-ability for tours and the possibility forthe return of international cricket in thefuture."

It is planned for the delegation to re-port back in August.

The committee also expressed its"disappointment" that

no place had beenfound in the calen-dar until 2017 for

the proposed ICCWorld Test Champi-onship.

"A World TestC h a m p i o n s h i p

would, cru-cially, pro-v i d ea d d i t i o n a lcontext for

Test cricket,"it said.

"The com-mittee is convinced

that Test cricket is thepinnacle of the sport, and that it

needs to be encouraged and marketedin every way possible." The committeealso again urged the ICC to produce auniform Decision Review System foruse across the international game.

LAHOREStaff rePort

Former Pakistani cricketer SaleemJaffar has said Imran Khan set the fastbowling trend in Pakistan, which sub-sequently led to the arrival of WasimAkram, Waqar Younis, Aaqib Javed,Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif andMohammad Amir to the scene.

“His action, his run-up, his bowl-ing style, and the way his ball pos-sessed pace; the generation of thattime became quite impressed becauseof this. He indeed brought the fastbowling tsunami,” PakPassion quotedJaffar, as saying.

Jafar said the overall quality ofcricket has not improved much sincehis time and added that the quality ofplayers was much better during histime.

He, however, admitted that field-ing has improved drastically over thepast few years.

“Nowadays, fielders have begun toslide more often, throwing has im-proved a lot, and so I will say that inmy opinion, if you look at it from theperspective of financial benefits even,then currently, cricketers have muchmore benefits and cricket is muchmore stressful these days,” Jaffer said.

He also pointed out that cricketers

tend to get confused by hiring differ-ent coaches at different levels, andstressed that the player should rely onone coach.

Jaffar admitted that Karachi clubcricket’s structure has ceased to becompetitive and it has failed to pro-duce batsmen like Khalid Latif,Shahzaib Hasan and Khurram Man-zoor in recent times.

He stressed that cricket selectionwas not marred by political interfer-ences during his tenure as selector butadded that the selection process can-not be ‘black and white’ under certaincircumstances.

“For example, if you have Inza-mam ul Haq in your team playing acertain position in the batting orderand you have someone who has scoredmore runs playing at that position, youcan’t automatically select him until theposition is vacant,” he said.

Jaffar featured in 14 Tests and 39ODIs for Pakistan.

MCC mulls cricket matches in Pakistan

LAHOREStaff rePort

President of the Cricketers' Welfare As-sociation of Bangladesh (CWAB)Naimur Rahman said Tuesday thatBangladeshi players are worried aboutthe security situation in Pakistan.

Pakistan has not hosted any interna-tional match since March 2009 when SriLankan cricket team was attacked bymilitants on their way to Gaddafi Sta-dium. Since then, Pakistan has beenhosting its home series at the neutralvenues of england and UAe. Sri Lankacricket board had last year hinted atsending its team to Pakistan but noprogress was made in this regard andPakistan was once again forced to hostits home series against the Islanders atthe neutral venues of United Arab emi-rates in October last year.

Besides all this, Pakistan was alsodeprived of the hosting rights of lastyear’s esteemed world cup event, caus-ing a huge financial loss to the PakistanCricket Board.

The PCB officials had last year re-quested their counterparts in theBangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to sendtheir players to Pakistan for a bilateralseries. The BCB agreed to send its na-

tional team to the terrorism hit countrybut had requested the government tosend a team to Pakistan to assess the se-curity arrangements for the Bengaliplayers. But now it has been reportedthat the players have expressed concernsover the itinerary and want BCB to dis-cuss the matter with them before reach-ing a decision.

According to reports, Rehman, whowas also the first Test captain ofBangladesh, said that the security situa-tion in the country is not that encourag-ing, saying it is not safe to send theplayers when no other board is willing todo so.

"We CWAB don't have a stance assuch, but we know that the players areworried," said Rahman.

"The situation is not normal thereand no other team is going to Pakistan…I personally believe it is not safe. Theworried players haven't approached usformally, but when they do, we will takethe matter to the cricket board," headded further.

Meanwhile the PCB is striving forfool proof security arrangements for theBangladesh team and have sought bulletand bomb proof vehicles from the inte-rior ministry to provide transport to thevisiting team.

Bangladeshi players worriedon touring Pakistan

imran inspired my generationof fast bowlers, says jaffar

LAHOREStaff rePort

Hataff and Sufi Group registered wins onthe opening day of the Sufi Group PakistanPolo Cup that saddled into action here atthe Lahore Polo Club on Tuesday.

Hataff edged ahead of HBL by one and-a-half margin which it enjoyed as a handi-cap otherwise they would have lost.

But by the close of play Hataff won byseven-and-a-half goals to seven goal differ-ence. Hashim Kamal Agha and SameerHabib Oberoi shared three goals each forHataff while the unfortunate quartet ofHBL got their score through Raja TemurNadeem who managed four goals whileTaimur Ali Malik had two and Raja Samiul-lah hit in one.

Sufi Group edged ahead of Pakistan AirForce 9-8 with Shah Qublai Alam playingthe major role in the Sufis’ win by scoringsix goals while Saqib Khan Khakwani gotthe remaining three.

The losing side PAF had Waqas Niazishine through with five goals with ShaukatAli Malik getting two and Sattar Niazi one.

The matches were played under the su-pervision of Ahmad Nawaz Tiwana, AhmedAli Tiwana Omar Asjad Malhi and SantiagoMendivil.

hataff, sufi Group notch wins in Pakistan Polo Cup

Cantona’s latest

goal is French

presidency

PARISafP

Footballer-turned-actor eric Cantona islining up a long-shot bid for the Frenchpresidency, with the ex-ManchesterUnited star trying to gather enough polit-ical backing to topple Nicolas Sarkozy.After failing in a recent quixotic bid todestroy global banking, the man knownto english fans as King eric has writtento French mayors to get the 500 signa-tures needed to stand in April's election.But Cantona appears to be applying oneof his legendary footballing feints on thepolitical field, using the unlikely presi-dential run to secure his real aim -- helpfor the poorly housed, on behalf of one ofhis favoured charities.In his letter to city mayors, revealed bythe daily Liberation, the 45-year-old saidhe is "a citizen very much aware of ourtimes," which offer "limited opportuni-ties" to the young and generate "violent"injustice.He said he felt obliged to speak up "at atime when our country faces difficultchoices" and that the current economicuncertainty gave him "a sense of my re-sponsibility".Getting the 500 mayors to sign up to hismessage on housing and poverty "wouldallow me to send a simple but clear mes-sage: a message of truth and respect," hesaid. Cantona, who has starred in advertsfor such multinationals as L'Oreal andNike, said he "chose the housing issue asit seems to me to be essential and con-cerns 10 million people". "I had to act ata time when I was likely to be heard."

Venus williams outof australian Open

WASHINgtONafP

Seven-time Grand Slam singles cham-pion Venus Williams withdrew from theAustralian Open on Monday as she strug-gles to return from the autoimmune dis-ease Sjogren's syndrome.In a posting on her website, the US starsaid that she has been making progressand plans to return to WTA Tour play inFebruary, when events begin in theUnited States."I regret to announce that I am with-drawing from the 2012 Australian Open,"Williams said on her website."After several months of training andtreatment, I am making steady progressto top competitive form."My diet and fitness regimen have al-lowed me to make great strides in termsof my health and I am very close to beingready to return to WTA competition. Ihave every intention to return to the cir-cuit in February."Williams, whose ranking has slipped to100th in the world, pulled out of lastweek's WTA event in Auckland becauseof the illness, which saps her energy andcauses pain in her joints.World number one Caroline Wozniackisaid Williams's health was the most im-portant thing. "Venus has played formany years, but she's been unlucky withthe virus thing," Wozniacki said at theSydney International."I'm not completely sure what it is ex-actly, but the most important thing is thehealth. Tennis is a game but most of all,the most important thing is that you'rehealthy and she'll be 100 percent healthyby February."Williams, 31, is not the only member ofher family in doubt for the first GrandSlam event of 2012. Younger sister Ser-ena, a 13-time Grand Slam singles cham-pion, pulled out of last week's event atBrisbane with a sprained ankle.Serena Williams posteda Twitter messagesaying she wasdoing better, hint-ing she might beready for theMelbournefortnightthat be-gins onMon-day.

LahORe: The riders of Sufi group and PaF teams struggle to get control of the ball during their Pakistan Polo Cup match. NADeeM ijAz

KHI 11-01-2012_Layout 1 1/11/2012 2:34 AM Page 19

sports20wednesday, 11 January, 2012

Tiger to make USPga 2012 debut at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACHafP

Tiger Woods will play his first US PGAevent of the 2012 season at next month'sPebble Beach National Pro-Am, the 14-time major champion announced Mondayon his website.The appearance will be the first forWoods at the event since 2002. He wonthe Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2000, rally-ing from five strokes back in the lastround, and won the US Open four monthslater by a record-setting 15 strokes."I'm excited to start my PGA season at thePebble Beach National Pro-Am," Woodssaid. "I'm looking forward to playing inthis event. I haven't been to this tourna-ment lately, but I have a lot of good mem-ories at Pebble."The major victory at Pebble Beach begana run of four major titles in a row forWoods, the famed "Tiger Slam". Woods,who first saw the Pacific Ocean-side lay-out as a junior golfer, shared fourth at the2010 US Open at Pebble Beach."It has always been one of my favoritespots," Woods said. "It might be the pret-tiest place on earth."Woods will open his 2012 season on Jan-uary 26 at the HSBC Championship inAbu Dhabi.The Pro-Am features play on SpyglassHill and Monterey Peninsula's Shorecourse as well as Pebble Beach in the firstthree rounds."I've never played Monterey Peninsulaand am looking forward to it," Woodssaid. "From all I've heard, it's a wonderfulcourse and the greens are fast."Woods snapped a two-year win droughtlast month by winning the 18-man WorldChallenge event to benefit his foundation,but has not won a US PGA event sinceSeptember of 2009."It was great to finish 2011 strong,"Woods said. "More importantly, it's goodto be healthy again. I'm hoping to get offto a fast start." Woods, whose 84 worldwide titles in-clude 71 in US PGA events, was nagged byinjuries the past two seasons as well asthe fallout from his infamous sex scandal.In addition to chasing the career record

of 18 major titles won byJack Nicklaus,

Woods is alsochasing the all-time US PGA

victory recordof 82 won bySam Snead.

Henry makes fairytalereturn for Gunners

LONDONafP

THIeRRY Henry needed just over 10 minutes tomark his Arsenal return with the winning goal asLeeds United were edged out 1-0 at the emiratesStadium in the FA Cup third round on Monday. The

former France international, 34, left the Gunners in June 2007as the club's record goal-scorer and returned last week on a two-month loan from New York Red Bulls.

He could hardly have made a more impressive comeback,showing his colleagues how to finish after Leeds, currentlyeighth in the Championship, held out stubbornly until the 79thminute, 11 minutes after Henry had come on to a rapturous wel-come from the home fans. It was his 227th Gunners goal and Ar-senal's reward is a fourth round tie at home to Aston Villa. Afterthe match he told eSPN: "It's kind of weird, I only came backfrom holiday in Mexico 15 days ago, I never thought I was goingto be playing for Arsenal again and then score the winner.

"The feeling I had when I scored was amazing, I've rejoinedthe club as a fan, I just wanted to come and help the team, and thenI end up as man of the match - it wasn't my plan to be a hero. "I'llalways remember tonight. When it comes to Arsenal, somethinghappens to me." The 1998 World Cup winner settled a game thatwas a repeat of the draw for the same round last season, which sawLeeds come within a handful of seconds from winning at the emi-rates Stadium but went on to lose in the replay. Arsene Wenger

had allowed captain and top scorer Robin van Persie to take a hol-iday, with Marouane Chamakh taking his place up front before de-parting for the Africa Cup of Nations. Otherwise it was close tobeing as strong a starting line-up as a series of injuries to defenderswould allow, with Wojciech Szczesny, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Song,captain for the night Mikel Arteta and Andrey Arshavin all in-cluded. Henry, as expected, began on the bench, as did Theo Wal-cott, the inheritor of the number 14 shirt the Frenchman leftbehind four-and-a-half years ago when he decamped to Barcelona.

Delhi’s rugby clubdue in city todayLAHORE: The Punjab Rugby Associationunder the auspices of the Pakistan RugbyUnion is hosting The Delhi Lions RugbyClub in Lahore from January 11 to 16.The tour will comprise two full 15-a-sidematches against two of Pakistan's top superleague teams, with the first match beingplayed against the new super league teamPunjab Warriors while the second matchwill see two old rivals Lahore Djuice Rams,Pakistan No 1 ranked Super League Clubagainst the guest Delhi Lions Rugby Clubwho were recent winners of the All India 7stournament. This is the third time the twoteams will be competing against each other.The first time was when Lahore Ramstoured Delhi and won two test matches and7s tournament. The second encounter waswhen Delhi Lions toured Lahore to takepart in the Lahore 10s Rugby Tournament.UMT University will host the first of thetwo test matches on January 12 and DHA LBlock Stadium will host the Rugby 7s Tour-nament on January 14 and final test matchon the January 15. The event will also fea-ture a 7-a-side tournament format withtotal 9 teams taking part including theDelhi Lions. The other teams taking partare Lahore Djuice, Rams, GarrisonionsServis Bulls, UMT Lahore, Lums Lahore,University of Lahore, AIT Rugby Club,Multan rugby Club, Muzzafargurh rugbyand DHA Club. Staff rePort

SYDnEY: Novak Djokovic says nothing's im-possible as he sets out to repeat his jaw-drop-ping performances of last season, starting withthe Australian Open grand slam from Monday.

The Serbian world number one won three ofthe four grand slams and five Masters titles in2011, became the top-ranked player, put togethera 70-6 winning record and banked a record 12.6million dollars in prize money. Last year's Aus-tralian Open final triumph over Andy Murray wasthe first of seven straight tournament wins in a41-match winning streak that was finally endedby Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the FrenchOpen. "My success gives me a reason to believethat I can win again. Why not?" Djokovic said.

"I think it doesn't make any sense to be any-thing other than optimistic. I need to believe inmy qualities and my abilities and I need to be-

lieve that I can repeat the success. "Of course itis going to be an incredibly difficult task toachieve, but you never know, nothing is reallyimpossible." Djokovic, 24, dominated men's ten-nis last year, winning a career-best 10 titles in 11finals. He defeated world number two RafaelNadal six times and overall was 21-4 against top-10 opponents. But his incredible season nowmarks him as the hunted as his top rivals Nadal,Federer and Murray will be out to preventDjokovic from sweeping all before him again.

"What he (Djokovic) did, (is) very difficultfor him to do again," former US Open championand world number 11 Juan Martin del Potro saidthis week. "I think Roger and Rafa (Nadal) willbe going after Novak because they don't wanthim to repeat the year he just had." Djokovic'slandmark season took its toll with a combination

of back and shoulder trouble, but the Serb saidhe was now injury-free. "Injuries are past at thismoment," he said. "I am happy to announce thatit has been a couple of weeks since my last matchand I have had enough time to recover physicallyand mentally and to get back into shape."

But Nadal finished last season with a soreleft shoulder and was not sure whether he wouldbe at his peak during the Australian Open.

"I know I am working well, with a muchmore positive attitude than I had during the sec-ond half of last season, especially in the finalstretch," he told Catalan sports daily Sport.

"I see myself capable of having a good tour-nament but you never know. I am happy with thelevel of my game, of how I am doing things and Ithink I am sowing seeds that will bear fruit. Butmaybe not in Australia." afP

Can djokovic stay ahead of the pack?

DUBaI: Pakistan's cricketers warm up during a practice

session at the ICC global Cricket academy. AFP

LONDON: arsenal's aaron Ramsey (L) vies with Leeds United's

aidan white during the third round Fa Cup football match. AFP

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sports 21wednesday, 11 January, 2012

wAtch It LIve

ESPN Sports Center08:00PM

STAR SPORTSBig Bash League: AdelaideStrikers vs. Sydney Sixers02:00AM

NBP, waPDa off towinning start inNational Jr hockey

LAHOREStaff rePort

NBP, Railways, PAH Academy andWAPDA registered opening day wins asthe 31st U-21 National Junior HockeyChampionship started here at the NationalHockey Stadium on Tuesday.Director General Sports Board PunjabUsman Anwar performed the opening ofthe championship. On the occasion, Or-ganising Secretary Rana Mujahid Ali,Tournament Director Saghir Ahmed,Olympian Khawaja Muhammad Junaidmanager hockey team, Olympian AnjumSaeed, Olympian Muhammad Usman andofficials of DHA Lahore were also present.NBP thrashed FATA by 23 goals and theyscored a dozen goals by half time. NBP gottheir goals through M. Dilber (5 goals 5th,7th , 22nd , 23rd & 27th minutes), Khur-ram Shahzad (3 goals 8th ,26th & 69thminutes), Kashif Javed (4 goals 11th &28th, 25th minute and 61st minute PC),Ayub Ali (7 goals 16th, 30th, 30th, 42nd,44th, 48th & 69th minutes FG), ArslanQadir (46th minute), Zohaib Azeem Khan(2 goals 50th minute & 66th minute) &Ahmed Zubair 53rd minute. Railways beatPakistan Boards 2-0 and one goal each wasscored in either half. Railways’ Ateeq Ar-shad scored in the seventh minute andAkbar Ali in the 57th minute.PHF Academy beat KPK by three goals.They led the match by one goal after 35minutes game was called off. PHF Acad-emy scorers were Mudassar Ali 24thminute (FG), Mawadit Ali 57th minute(FG) & M. Ali Khan 70th minute (FG).Wapda beat Punjab Whites 6-1 (FullTime). The half time score was 4-0. Wapdamanaged its big win through M. Suleman10th minute (FG), M. Irfan (Capt) 2 goals22nd minute (PC) & 30th minute (FG),Aleem Bilal 2 GOALS 31st & 57th minutes(PC) & Asad 36th minute (FG) while thelosing Punjab’s only goal was scored by Ar-slan in the 45th minute (PC).

CondolenceLAHORE

Staff rePort

Chairman PCB Ch. Zaka Ashraf, Chairper-son PCB Women Wing Mrs. Bushra Aitazaz,and PCB COO Mr. Subhan Ahmed have ex-tended their deepest condolences to the fam-ily of Mr. Talib Rizvi on his sad demise. TalibRizvi was a seasoned lawyer and father ofMr. Tafzul Rizvi, legal adviser to PCB. Hedied of cardiac arrest today at Lahore.

National U-14Football Festivalfrom Feb 3

LAHOREStaff rePort

The Pakistan Football Federation is or-ganizing the National U-14 Football Fes-tival-2012 at Jinnah Football Stadium,Islamabad from February 3 to 15.The tournament is being participated by16 teams including one team each fromprovinces, region and eight teams of Aid27 coaches. The following provinces, re-gions and Aid 27 coaches teams will beparticipating in the Festival.The Aid 27 coaches teams are: Faisal-abad Zone, Lahore Zone, Karachi ZoneA, Karachi Zone B, Quetta Zone,Chaman Zone, Peshawar Zone,Noshehra Zone. The provinces teams arePunjab, Balochistan, Sindh and KhyberPK (KPK) and regions teams are Islam-abad, Gilgit Baltistan, Azad Jammu &Kashmir (AJK) and Federally Adminis-tered Tribal Areas (FATA).

tough sydney openers for Wozniacki, KvitovaSYDNEY

afP

World number one Caroline Wozniacki andher chief rankings rival Petra Kvitova haddemanding three-set introductions to theSydney International in their first officialmatches of the season on Tuesday.

Wozniacki and Kvitova, tuning up fornext week's Australian Open, were on courtfor more than two hours in warm conditionsafter beginning their Australian campaignsindoors at last week's Hopman Cup in Perth.

Wozniacki was beaten by world numbertwo Kvitova in three sets in the mixed teamsHopman Cup, after beating AmericanBethanie Mattek-Sands and Bulgaria's Tsve-tana Pironkova in her other singles matches.After her two hour and 22 minute matchagainst the 18th-ranked Slovakian DominikaCibulkova, the Danish world number onesaid her 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 victory had been atough contest. "I thought I didn't have thatchance, but I never gave up the fight," said

Wozniacki, whose tenure at the top of thewomen's singles rankings comes despite notyet winning a grand slam in 19 attempts. "I'mhappy to be through to the next round here.Definitely that I could fight back from thatscore is satisfying, but I definitely need tostep up my game a little bit in the nextround." Wozniacki set up a quarter-finalclash against Polish seventh seed AgnieszkaRadwanska, who overcame Germany's An-drea Petkovic in straight sets. Wozniackileads Radwanska 5-1. On her much-antici-pated contest with Kvitova for the top spot,the Dane said she was looking forward to it.Kvitova trails Wozniacki by 295 rankingspoints with 470 points up for grabs to thewinner of the Sydney International. "Petra isa great girl. I like her a lot. She's one of mygood friends," she said. "I'm sure we'll playagainst each other and we'll both do well inthe years to come," Wozniacki said. "Themost important thing is that we're all healthyand playing well. The competition on thecourt will be good fun for the fans as well."

Messi wins thirdstraight Ballon d'Or

zURICHafP

LIONeL Messi was on Monday awarded the 2011FIFA Ballon d'Or at a star-studded ceremony inZurich, the third consecutive year that he has wonthe prestigious award for the world's outstandingfootballer. The 24-year-old Barcelona and Ar-

gentina forward finished ahead of his Real Madrid rival CristianoRonaldo and Barca team-mate Xavi. "It's a great personal pleas-ure for me," said Messi. "It's the third time I've won it. It's justan amazing honour. I want to thank everyone that's been in-volved with me -- my team-mates, trainers, physios, the coach(Pep Guardiola) and everyone at Barcelona.

"I'd also like to thank the Argentina national team as well."Messi becomes only the second player, after current UeFA

president Michel Platini, to win the award for three consecutiveyears. He also joins Platini, Johan Cruyff and Marco van Bastenas the only men to have won the prize on three occasions.

"I want to share this honour with my team-mate, Xavi,"added Messi, who then addressed his club-mate in the audienceat the FIFA Ballon d'Or Gala. "He deserves it, too. I want to shareit with you, because you deserve it as much as me. It's a pleasureto be here alongside him and to play with him."

The award was formed when the Ballon d'Or merged withthe FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2010 and is votedfor by national team coaches and captains, as well as a panel offootball journalists selected by France Football magazine.

Messi was the strong favourite to retain his prize after a yearin which he inspired his club to five trophies, including theChampions League, the FIFA Club World Cup and a third con-secutive La Liga title. He scored twice, including a memorablesolo goal at the Bernabeu, as Barca beat old enemies Madrid inthe Champions League semi-finals and he was also on targetfrom long range in the 3-1 defeat of Manchester United in thefinal at Wembley. This season he has scored his 200th goal forBarcelona and is closing in on Cesar Rodriguez's all-time recordof 235 goals for the club. Barcelona were given further reason tocelebrate when Guardiola was named FIFA Coach of the Year.

The 40-year-old former Barcelona and Spain midfielder hadbeen nominated alongside Madrid's Jose Mourinho - winner lastyear after guiding Inter Milan to three trophies including theChampions League - and Sir Alex Ferguson of ManchesterUnited. "I want to dedicate this award to the thousands of peoplewho, through more than a hundred years, have worked for FCBarcelona and helped develop one of the best clubs in the world,"said Guardiola.

The blow was softened for Ferguson by the FIFA PresidentialAward, which was presented to him by FIFA president Sepp Blat-ter in recognition of his 25 years of service in the Old Trafforddug-out. "I've been a lucky manager to have such great playersfrom the word go right through to today," said the 70-year-oldScot. "What makes United such a special club, from our past rightup to the present day, is that they have always retained thecourage to play and the courage to win." Barca boasted five play-ers in the FIFPro XI for 2011, with Dani Alves, Gerard Pique andAndres Iniesta selected alongside Xavi and Messi. Madrid hadfour representatives -- Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonsoand Ronaldo -- while Manchester United pair Nemanja Vidic andWayne Rooney completed the line-up. Messi and Rooney missedout on the FIFA Puskas Award for the best goal of 2011, whichwas awarded to Santos forward Neymar for a remarkable sologoal that he scored in a Brazilian league game against Flamengo.Japanese midfielder Homare Sawa claimed the women's equiv-alent of the Ballon d'Or, after she won the Golden Boot for topscorer and the Golden Ball for player of the tournament as Japansecured their first ever women's World Cup title in Germany.

SyDNey: Petra kvitova of the Czech Republicreturns to alexandra Dulgheru of Romaniaduring their second round match. AFP

SyDNey: Marion Bartoli of France eyes a returnagainst Jelena Dokic of australia during theirsecond round match. AFP

SyDNey: Caroline wozniacki of Denmarkreturns to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia intheir second round match. AFP

ZURICh: awarded people stand on stage at the end of the FIFa Ballon d'Or ceremony. AFP

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wednesday, 11 January, 2012 22

ISLAMABADagenCieS

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesdayreminded his political foes not to forget theplea bargains they had reached in order tohave their crimes condoned and strongly re-jected their claims over the controversial Na-tional Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), whichwas agreed upon by slain former Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) chairwoman Benazir Bhuttoand former president Pervez Musharraf.

The premier said elements who were try-ing to create mayhem with their hollow hueand cry should not forget the unmatchedlegacy of the PPP, which never succumbed topressures. Addressing a group of parliamen-tarians from Sargodha, the prime ministerclaimed that the era of entering the power cor-ridors “on crutches” had passed and now itcould be only done through public support.

“The politics in the country is not an idealbusiness; the PPP leadership bore trials andfaced jails,” he said, adding that the real revo-lution was introduced by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,against whom the top political leaders of theirtime could not stand. Gilani said agreementssuch as the NRO were enforced in the past, butthe only difference was that the PPP govern-ment had been made a stock of criticism whileothers were awarded.

Calling party leaders loyal to PPP’s ideol-ogy assets, he said those who left the partywere opportunists and stressed upon his partyworkers to value its leadership by showing al-legiance. He said the leaders or members ofthe PPP could have differences of opinion over

issues but there were no two opinions aboutthe ideas imbibed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto andBenazir Bhutto. “All the dictators are innocentwhereas all the politicians are pictured as cor-rupt,” he said, adding that media reports pro-vided details of assets worth millions of rupeespossessed by Musharraf, but no action wastaken against him. The prime minister said hisgovernment had introduced a legislationthrough which all government servants wouldhave to show their assets and referred to therestoration of the constitution as an achieve-ment of his government.

Malik reveals theSharifs’ ‘NRO deal’

ISLAMABADStaff rePort

Displaying the documentssigned by Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N)President Nawaz Sharif andhis brother, Punjab ChiefMinister Shahbaz Sharif, inwhich he appealed to formerpresident Pervez Musharraffor pardon during the trial ofcases against him and hisfamily members in 2000,Interior Minister RehmanMalik said on Tuesday thatNawaz deliberately ignoredthe ‘National ReconciliationOrdinance’ (NRO) he hadsigned with the militarydictator to avoidimprisonment. “Nawaz Sharifis talking too much about theNRO promulgated by theprevious regime but hasforgotten the NRO he hadsigned with Pervez Musharrafto escape imprisonment,”

PESHAWARSHaMiM SHaHiD

AT least 29 people were killedand more than 35 others in-jured when a high-intensitybomb went off at the mainmarket in Jamrud, Khyber

Agency on Tuesday morning.Two Khasadar Forces personnel, two

children and women were among thedead, most of whom belonged to the Za-kakhel clan of the Afridi tribe. Officialssaid an explosives-laden pickup truckparked in a petrol filling station at MainBazaar had been remotely detonated.“According to initial information, it was aremote-controlled device planted in apassenger pickup van,” said Mutahir Zeb,a top official of the agency.

The resultant explosion was so massivethat it was heard and felt as far away as Uni-versity Town in Hayatabad and other local-ities of Peshawar adjacent to the borderregions of Khyber Agency. Around 19 peo-

ple lost their lives on the spot and another10 succumbed to injuries at the hospital.Jamrud Assistant Political Agent Moham-mad Jamil Khan told Pakistan Today that35 wounded people were under treatmentat various hospitals and doctors had de-clared several of them to be in serious con-dition. Over a dozen people with minorinjuries had already been discharged aftertreatment. The blast damaged several vehi-cles and shops and completely gutted thefilling station and a number of shops closeto it. Soon after the explosion, high-rankingofficials in the political administration of theagency rushed to the site to supervise rescueactivities. The injured were admitted to Pe-shawar’s Hayatabad Medical Complex,Khyber Teaching Hospital and Lady Read-ing Hospital. There have been no claims ofresponsibility so far but local tribal eldersand officials believed Zakakhel tribesmenwere the target. The Afridis of the Zakakhelclan from Tirrah Valley have formed peacemilitias against militants associated with thebanned Lashkar-e-Islam, headed by Mangal

Bagh. The Zakakhel tribesmen also supportthe war on terror. Meanwhile, AFP reportedthat 35 people had been killed in the blastand more than 60 were wounded. Trails ofblood could be seen around the site of theblast, which had left a large crater in the

road, an AFP reporter said. The bombingwas the first major militant attack in Pak-istan since September 15, when a suicidebomber killed 46 people, targeting anti-Tal-iban militia at a funeral in the northwesterndistrict of Lower Dir.

29 killed, 35 wounded as Jamrud hit againSC could havechallengedZardari’soath, says CJP

ISLAMABADStaff rePort

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) IftikharMuhammad Chaudhry on Tuesday said theSupreme Court (SC) could have objected tothe oath administered to President Asif AliZardari by former de-facto chief justiceAbdul Hameed Dogar, but avoided takingaction only to prevent anarchy in thecountry. The chief justice was heading afour-member SC bench hearing a petitionfiled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)chief Imran Khan against bogus voters’lists. His caution to the president camewhile hearing a matter about the last by-elections, held following the passage of the18th Amendment when the electionCommission of Pakistan (eCP) was notcomplete. He said that something wouldhave to be done for the rule of law withoutcaring for the results, and that the courtswould not work on the ‘doctrine ofnecessity’. During the hearing, the chiefjustice asked Attorney General MaulviAnwarul Haq to tell about the legal statusof those by-elections held with anincomplete eCP. Haq submitted that a billhad been drafted to give protection to thecandidates elected in by-elections, whichwould be sent to the cabinet for formalapproval. The chief justice asked why thesalaries and facilities availed by the 28lawmakers elected in the controversial by-polls should not be withdrawn. Later, thecourt adjourned the hearing until January12. earlier, the eCP had declared that thedisputed by-polls should be considered andtreated as “correct and legitimate”, becausethey were past and closed transaction. Thecourt in response said, “This is the doctrineof necessity, which we have buried onceand for all.” The court observed that thelaw had been violated by holding by-pollswith an incomplete eCP therefore theresulting successful candidates could facedisqualification.

ISLAMABADMian abrar

The secretary of the Saleem ShehzadCommission on Tuesday presented itsprobe report to Prime Minister YousafRaza Gilani on the mysterious murderof the journalist, giving a clean chit tothe country’s security agencies, in-cluding the Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI). Saleem Shehzad was an inves-tigative journalist who had claimed ofreceiving life threats and pointed fin-gers at the country’s security agencies,especially the ISI, only a few days be-fore his murder.

A source privy to the details saidthe 140-page report had recom-mended the prime minister make thereport public. “The commissionfound no involvement of any securityagency, including the ISI, in thekilling of the journalist. Moreover,none of the journalists interviewedgave any evidence or shared infor-mation about the involvement ofagencies. No one even blamed anyintelligence agency of involvement,”added the source. However, thesource said the commission directedthe intelligence agencies to stream-line their working vis-à-vis media

and maintain proper record of theirinteractions with journalists.

The commission further directedthe Islamabad and Punjab police de-partments to continue their respec-tive investigation process to identifythe perpetrators of the crime. Thecommission further asked the gov-ernment to pay compensationamount to the family of the slainjournalist and also cater for the edu-cational needs of his children.“Though the commission was givensix weeks to compile its report, ittook six months to finalise the probedue to the sensitive nature of thematter. During the period, the com-mission recorded interviews of 41 in-dividuals that have been made a partof the report,” the source said.

RAwALPInDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS)General Ashfaq Kayani on Tuesday held a meetingwith senior military officials at the Army GeneralHeadquarters (GHQ) following his return fromChina. The army chief was briefed about PrimeMinister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s recent interview toa Chinese newspaper wherein he said that GeneralKayani and ISI DG Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha’sstatements to the Supreme Court were illegal.

Kayani was in Beijing on a five-day officialtrip to meet the Chinese military and politicalleadership when the prime minister told theChinese media that the replies submitted byGeneral Kayani and General Pasha in theSupreme Court in the “memogate” case wereillegal, as they were not approved by the gov-ernment. According to sources, the militaryleadership was extremely annoyed over primeminister’s statement at a time when GeneralKayani was on an important visit to China.Sources said the military leadership also ex-pressed surprise over the continuous change

of stance by the prime minister regarding therelations between the civil and military lead-ership. The military leadership was also an-noyed over the use of Chinese media to targetsecurity institutions, according to INP sources.

They said the following 24 hours were ex-tremely important as far as civil-military rela-tions were concerned. The corps commanders’meeting, scheduled to take place next week,has also been postponed. AGeNCies

iSi gets a clean chitin Saleem probeg No journalist interviewed pointed finger at security agencies

don’t forget your own plea bargains, Gilani tells opponents

Kayani consults commanders

Continued on page 04

JaMruD: a tV cameraman captures the scene of a bombing as residents look on

here on tuesday. sTAFF PhOTO

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